@roethlisburger, salary surveys by college are typically across majors. Michigan Tech did a review of starting salaries in various engineering areas (based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics), When you put those numbers next to those of a college that I know a little bit about, Cornell Engineering (which would reasonably be considered a ‘highly ranked’ college for engineering), you can see a difference:
*US avg* *Cornell*
BME 62,411 v 47.075
Civil 59,230 v 62,324
Chem E 68520 v . 79185
Env Eng 59008 v 72,500
Mat Sci 73964 v 68675
Mech Eng 64956 v 74,383
Overall, there is a difference -but to me it is a difference of degree, not kind. Obviously, there are caveats: these are medians & means, and one is for 2018 and one is 2019, etc; and course to a new grad, a $10-15K difference is a lot- but I don’t think that the difference would justify additional debt. ABET is a great leveler, and as it happens La Tech is actually well regarded in engineering circles.