<p>A collection of similar successful programs would be good information for college-bound students.</p>
<p>From [‘Did</a> You Know? Facts and figures about Greater Cincinnati colleges and universities’](<a href=“Cincinnati CityBeat”>Cincinnati CityBeat):</p>
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<p>" The average starting salary for a student with a graduate degree in paper science, an engineering degree specific to the forest-products industry, is $51,000."</p>
<p>I’d rather take my chances with a more conventional engineering degree. 51K with a masters is a bit lower than I’d be hoping for.</p>
<p>The paper mill industry used to be huge in Maine. As a structural engineer, I worked on several projects in mills in the late 80s and early 90s. Stone and Webster even established a branch office up here just to work on paper mills. But since then, the industry has really dwindled. A lot of mills have shut down one ore more paper machines. From what <em>I</em> can see, I would not recommend paper science as a major!</p>
<p>As far as starting salaries goes, there are SO many factors involved. $51k would be OK in some places - tougher in a big city. My husband and I decided to go with lower salaries but live in a beautiful rural area, instead of making more money in a big city like Boston.</p>
<p>NC State has a highly regarded Pulp and Paper Sci. major. I have read that at NCSU most Pulp and Paper Sci. majors end up with a Chemical Engineering degree (double major) also because so many of the courses everlap. I’ve been told it is a pretty difficult major.</p>
<p>Well, that’s not very specific. For all we know, some of those graduates are working at Wendy’s.</p>
<p>Speaking from experience…at least a handful of graduates of any decent-sized program are probably going to be near-unemployable due to personal issues, even if the program is extremely well respected by tons of good employers. Yale Law School comes to mind. In any class, there’s going to be a few who have social problems or drug abuse or something and cannot hold it together. For that reason, I’m very skeptical of 100% placement rates. They’re dropping someone from that sample, or else their sample size is like 4 kids per year.</p>