This is a guest post from Digital Senior.
NTU’s rise in rankings
We are spotting notable changes in the ranking of the top 10 paying degrees. Last year(http://digitalsenior.sg/graduate-employment-survey-ges-2015/ ) , the only NTU degree we saw was aerospace engineering at number 10. This time round, at 5th and 6th placing, we have both NTU double degree courses. It may be due to a NTU’s rapid rise in world rankings. In 2015, NTU jumped to 13th position in the widely-used QS system, putting it ahead of even Ivy League and European universities such as Yale, John Hopkins, Cornell and King’s College London. NTU doesn’t have a law program and its medicine course is relatively new. As a result of that, some of its strongest degrees are NTU Business and Computing and NTU Accountancy and Business degrees with graduates salaries over $4500. With NTU’s newly established star program- Renaissance engineering students graduating soon, it will be interesting to see how much they would fetch.
IT graduates
Also, there is a trend of computing graduates getting increasingly paid better. It is not surprising considering that many industries in Singapore have transformed with the widespread adoption of internet and technology. Print media is one such example of an industry that has shifted. Individuals with IT skills are definitely in demand. On the other hand, the top 2 paying degrees remained , with law and medicine graduates commanding the highest salaries. It is unlikely that computing students can overtake them anytime soon.
Increase in salary
In general, starting salaries of fresh grads have also went up by around 5-10% compared to last year , beating inflation rate slightly. It is definitely a good sign that our graduates are getting better paid. The better students can expect to be paid around 4-5k a month.
Importance of money management
While it seems like a huge amount as compared to what their parents receive decades ago, it bears knowing that prices of everything else has also increased. Graduates have also their 5-figures student loan to repay, which could be several times the amount of their monthly salary. Financial prudence have to be exercised right from the time they graduate. We see a tendency for many people new to working world splurging their new-found wealth as soon as they graduate.
While we do not want to paint an overly pessimistic picture for an event as delightful as graduation, the importance of financial planning cannot be overlooked. Many other financial obligations will set in awhile after graduation- housing loan, car loan and kids’ expenses etc. If proper planning is done beforehand, alot of heartaches can be saved.
Advice for graduating students
Luckily, more than 90% of graduates are able to find jobs 6 months within finishing their final papers, which is what we see in the previous years as well. As long as savvy management of money is carried out, we are confident that a smooth sailing financial life is a guarantee for graduating students.
The salaries definitely comes with a “price” as it can be seen that there is a correlation between potential salary and entry grades requirement for each course. If you are looking at earning well in the future, it definitely pays to study harder! That said, the ideal scenario would be find a course you like and can pay well! All the best.