Colorado School of Mines Electrical Engineering (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering
- Public school
- Golden, CO
- About 80 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Colorado School of Mines electrical engineering graduates earn about what electrical engineering graduates earn nationally, $80,815 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $22,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. One other Colorado program reports higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Colorado and national columns are the medians across all electrical engineering bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Colorado School of Mines graduates earn more than the national figure and about the same as the Colorado median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Colorado electrical engineering program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Colorado medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 28% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned about the same in their first year as other graduates, but borrowed more: a median of $25,461 against $20,465.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $233 a month, or 3.5% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual. Separately, 21 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $69,600.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
78% of graduates (52 of 67) were working in Colorado one year after graduating. Prices in the Denver area are about 6% above the national average, so a $80,815 salary here buys what about $76,398 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to electrical engineering, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Architectural and Engineering Managers
$183,810Median pay in Colorado. 4,900 people work in this job in Colorado. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 14,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.
Electrical Engineers
$120,760Median pay in Colorado. 4,200 people work in this job in Colorado. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 11,400 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
$127,010Median pay in Colorado. 6,080 people work in this job in Colorado. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Computer Hardware Engineers
$156,080Median pay in Colorado. 2,660 people work in this job in Colorado. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Colorado School of Mines
Electrical Engineering ranks 3rd of 13 bachelor's programs at Colorado School of Mines by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Science ($86,268), Mining Engineering ($83,309), and Electrical Engineering ($80,815).
Other electrical engineering bachelor's programs near Golden
Common questions
The median graduate earns $80,815 one year after graduating and $103,408 five years after. The median across electrical engineering bachelor's programs in Colorado is $80,513.
The median federal loan balance is $22,000, which ranks 2nd lowest of 5 electrical engineering bachelor's programs in Colorado. That works out to about $233 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 27% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 32%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less.
Most do. 78% (52 of 67) were working in Colorado one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Colorado comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the electrical engineering program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024