Recent SD Mines
graduates shown here in their place of employment include: Caitlin Taggert at
Google; Rachel Caesar at HDR; Morgan Powell at Wingfield Scale Company Inc.;
and Ayla Bitter at Arconic.
New job placement figures for the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
show 97 percent of 2016-17 graduates have secured employment in their career
field or are pursuing graduate degrees.
The average starting salary of a Mines graduate is $61,346.
Ten of the 16 majors at Mines had 100 percent placement rates, with the vast
majority of students electing to go directly into industry, working at companies
such as Microsoft, Garmin, Caterpillar,
Cargill, Lockheed Martin, Nucor, POET, Raven Industries, Black Hills
Corporation, Daktronics and more. Twenty-two percent of Mines students chose to
continue their studies in graduate school.
The high placement rate and starting salary speaks to SD Mines’ excellent
return on investment. The earnings of
graduates in science and engineering fields outpace other professions and the
cost of attending Mines is lower than many schools across the country.
Real-world experience is one advantage many Mines graduates
bring to their first job. Seventy-seven percent of students graduated with
internship or research experience at organizations such as NASA, Bobcat, Dow Chemical, L-3
Communications, Kimberly-Clark, SpaceX, Michelin and many other companies and
governmental agencies. South Dakota companies led the way in employing Mines
interns last year, with students working for more than 85 employers from 24 communities
across the state.
Thirty-six percent of graduates are staying in South Dakota to continue
advanced studies or contribute to the economic development of the state. In the
last five years, 293 graduates have accepted jobs with 144 employers in 29
South Dakota communities.
Chemical engineering graduates had the highest salary average among the
engineering majors at $69,740. This is more than $3,000 above the national
average. Computer engineering and computer science graduates were close behind
with an average starting salary of $68,208 and $68,000 respectively.
Mines has a very high standard for successful placement. A graduate is only
considered successfully placed if they are working full-time in a job related
to their major or are enrolled in graduate school.