Purdue Civil Engineering (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Civil Engineering
- Public university
- West Lafayette, IN
- About 180 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Purdue civil engineering graduates earn more than graduates of most civil engineering programs nationally, $74,369 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $19,500 in federal loans, less than at 83% of civil engineering programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying civil engineering degrees in Indiana.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Indiana and national columns are the medians across all civil engineering bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Purdue graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the Indiana median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Indiana civil engineering program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Indiana 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 15% 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 $3,285 less in their first year than other graduates. They also borrowed more. Students who expect to rely on grants should weigh this gap.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $207 a month, or 3.3% 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, 20 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $29,766.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
43% of graduates (48 of 112) were working in Indiana one year after graduating. Prices in the Lafayette area are about 7% below the national average, so a $74,369 salary here buys what about $79,599 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 civil engineering, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Civil Engineers
$98,270Median pay in Indiana. 4,030 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 22,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Architectural and Engineering Managers
$155,810Median pay in Indiana. 4,610 people work in this job in Indiana. 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.
Environmental Engineers
$92,460Median pay in Indiana. 520 people work in this job in Indiana. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 2,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Petroleum Engineers
$144,910Median pay nationwide. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Purdue
Civil Engineering ranks 12th of 70 bachelor's programs at Purdue by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Science ($94,786), Computer Engineering ($89,965), and Electrical Engineering ($84,300).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $74,369 one year after graduating and $85,536 five years after. The median across civil engineering bachelor's programs in Indiana is $71,685.
The median federal loan balance is $19,500, which ranks the lowest of 6 civil engineering bachelor's programs in Indiana. That works out to about $207 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 26% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 35%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less.
Many leave. 43% (48 of 112) were working in Indiana 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 Indiana 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 civil 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