Agricultural Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick

With just one agricultural engineering program in New Jersey, Rutgers is your only in-state option—and it delivers a solid, if not spectacular, financial outcome. Graduates earn $64,486 in their first year with $27,000 in debt, producing a manageable 0.42 debt-to-earnings ratio. That's slightly below the national median for this major ($65,396), but the debt load is remarkably low, ranking in just the 5th percentile nationally. You're looking at roughly five months of gross salary to cover the entire debt burden.

The caveat here matters: with fewer than 30 graduates in this cohort, these numbers could swing significantly year to year. A few outliers—someone joining a family farm versus landing at John Deere—can dramatically shift the median. That said, the debt figure is reassuringly concrete and compares favorably to the $22,936 national median for this specialized field.

For a family considering agricultural engineering, Rutgers offers the convenience of in-state tuition at a respectable research university without the debt trap that plagues many majors. The earnings may not wow you compared to computer science or engineering, but this is a practical field with steady demand. If your child is genuinely interested in agricultural technology and wants to stay in the region, the low debt makes this a defensible choice—just recognize you're working with limited data points.