Chemical Engineeringat University of California-Riverside
Graduates earn $68,245/yr in their first year — about 6.0% below the national Chemical Engineering average. Base-case 10-year earnings $838K; scenarios range from $726K to $875K depending on AI disruption.
What this degree looks like at UC Riverside
Graduates earn $68,245/yr, roughly in line with the $72,288 national median for Chemical Engineering. The value proposition here depends on cost, not earnings.
The 14.8x 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 — 48% task exposure — and the 17% scenario spread suggests disruption would dent but not destroy the earnings outlook.
With first-year pay of $68,245 far exceeding the $17,182 median debt, the payback timeline is measured in months, not years.
At #85 out of 158 programs, University of California-Riverside's financial outcomes for Chemical Engineering trail the majority of peers. The value case depends on other factors.
The five-year earnings trajectory from $68,245 to $90,784 shows 33% growth, reflecting steady but unremarkable salary progression.
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 UC Riverside'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 Chemical Engineering
How UC Riverside stacks up against other schools offering this major.
Other top programs at UC Riverside
Other highest-scoring programs offered at UC Riverside, ranked by DegreeOutlook Score.
Frequently asked about Chemical Engineering at UC Riverside
How does University of California-Riverside's Chemical Engineering program score?
A score of 69/100 reflects decent absolute metrics, but University of California-Riverside trails the majority of Chemical Engineering programs on relative rankings. Context matters more than the raw number.
How vulnerable is Chemical Engineering to AI automation?
AI won't 'replace' Chemical Engineering careers outright, but it is likely to reduce the number of job openings. We model 48% task exposure, which compresses field employment probability in our scenarios.