Mechanical Engineeringat SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Graduates earn $60,249/yr in their first year — about 15.0% below the national Mechanical Engineering average. Base-case 10-year earnings $633K; scenarios range from $570K to $650K depending on AI disruption.
What this degree looks like at SUNY Polytechnic Institute
First-year earnings of $60,249 track close to the $70,527 national median for Mechanical Engineering programs. This is a middle-of-the-road outcome on salary alone.
The 18.4x earnings multiple means ten-year projected earnings exceed tuition cost by an order of magnitude. By pure financial math, this is a standout.
AI risk is moderate — 53% task exposure — and the 12% scenario spread suggests disruption would dent but not destroy the earnings outlook.
At $24,000 in median debt against $60,249 in first-year earnings, graduates can expect to clear their loan balance in under six months of full earnings.
At #269 out of 320 programs, SUNY Polytechnic Institute's financial outcomes for Mechanical Engineering trail the majority of peers. The value case depends on other factors.
Three scenarios, ten years out
Each scenario is a different assumption about how AI reshapes the career paths this major feeds into. Earnings projections stack the full 10-year cumulative trajectory; scores use the same 0–100 metric as the hero, recomputed under that scenario's assumptions.
10 year projection
Year-by-year earnings under each scenario. Base case reflects BLS growth patterns applied to SUNY Polytechnic Institute's starting earnings; optimistic and pessimistic adjust for AI's effect on each career path this major feeds into.
Common career destinations for this program's graduates, weighted by the school's specific occupation mix. Salary is BLS national median; AI risk is per-role task-exposure research.
Peer schools offering Mechanical Engineering
How SUNY Polytechnic Institute stacks up against other schools offering this major.
Other top programs at SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Other highest-scoring programs offered at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, ranked by DegreeOutlook Score.
Frequently asked about Mechanical Engineering at SUNY Polytechnic Institute
How does SUNY Polytechnic Institute's Mechanical Engineering program score?
A score of 59/100 reflects decent absolute metrics, but SUNY Polytechnic Institute trails the majority of Mechanical Engineering programs on relative rankings. Context matters more than the raw number.
How vulnerable is Mechanical Engineering to AI automation?
AI won't 'replace' Mechanical Engineering careers outright, but it is likely to reduce the number of job openings. We model 53% task exposure, which compresses field employment probability in our scenarios.