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Where Our Undergrads Go

Our graduates are well-prepared for careers in a range of areas, including industry, medicine, law, business, public service, and academia

Your Duke Engineering degree puts you on the path to career achievement.

Duke Engineering is ranked among the top 10 Best School for Engineering Majors by Salary Potential$82,000 median pay with 0-5 years of work experienceby Payscale.com.

Recent graduates told us:

  • 91 percent had jobs or job offers at the time of graduation
  • 69 percent expected to work for pay full-time after graduation
  • 24 percent told us they planned to attend graduate or professional school full-time

Source: Class of 2020 Senior Exit Survey (52 percent response rate). The Class of 2021 survey has been delayed.

By Discipline

Where do Biomedical Engineering students go?

Graduates of our biomedical engineering program are prepared for professional employment in areas such as the medical device industry, engineering consulting, biomechanics, and biotechnology, graduate work in biomedical engineering, or entrance into medical and professional schools. About one-third of our students enter graduate schools in various engineering or basic science disciplines and one-third are accepted by medical or dental schools. The rest go to law school, business school, or employment in industry.

Where do Civil & Environmental Engineering students go?

Civil engineers design modern marvels such as the underground mass transit, and design buildings capable of safely weathering earthquakes. Environmental engineers are developing new treatment methods to combat pollution in the air, water, and soil. These engineers solve complex problems and work to balance the needs of growing human populations and the environment, addressing the challenges of pollution, traffic congestion, drinking water, and energy needs, urban redevelopment and community planning.

Where do Electrical & Computer Engineering students go?

Electrical and computer engineers are improving television and satellite transmissions, helping the military detect unexploded bombs, helping us understand how marine mammals communicate and developing megapixel cameras. The job opportunities for ECE graduates are limitless. These engineers also apply their understanding of electricity to make contributions to the field of medicine, such as improving or developing new analytical tools for doctors or making cochlear implants for deaf persons more effective in interpreting sound. Computer engineers can specialize in digital systems, computer operating systems, networks, software, and hardware.

Where do Mechanical Engineering students go?

Mechanical engineers work in fields that support the entire spectrum of consumer products, including robotics, automotive, packaging, and transportation. They are playing a key role in efforts to develop nano-sized machines and ultimately, to enable industrial-scale nanomanufacturing. Mechanical engineers frequently work in areas that cross over into other disciplines, particularly biology and medicine. For example, mechanical engineers at Duke are helping to develop artificial tissue and organs, and novel treatments for cancer and biomedical imaging.