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2026 Highest Paid Systems Engineering Grads in the Great Lakes Region

[Systems Engineering](/majors/engineering/systems-engineering/) graduates earn very different salaries depending on where they study. The highest-paying schools turn a systems engineering degree into the strongest early-career earnings.

For its 2026 highest-paid-graduates ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools to find where systems engineering graduates earn the most.

What’s on this page:

• Highest Paid Systems Engineering Grads in the Great Lakes Region

2026 Highest Paid Systems Engineering Grads in the Great Lakes Region

Below are the schools whose systems engineering graduates go on to earn the most.

Highest Paid Systems Engineering Graduates

1

University Of Michigan Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

$147,527 Average Early-Career Salary

Our analysis ranked University Of Michigan Ann Arbor the top school for systems engineering graduate earnings in the Great Lakes Region. University Of Michigan Ann Arbor is a public school located in the city of Ann Arbor. Students who complete the systems engineering program here go on to a median salary of roughly $147,527.

2

University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign
Champaign, IL

$81,785 Average Early-Career Salary

Students chasing top earnings in systems engineering will find them at University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign, which ranked #2. Located in the city of Champaign, University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign is a public institution. Students who complete the systems engineering program here go on to a median salary of roughly $81,785.

3

Otterbein University
Westerville, OH

$63,243 Average Early-Career Salary

Students chasing top earnings in systems engineering will find them at Otterbein University, which ranked #3. Otterbein University is a private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Westerville. Systems Engineering graduates of Otterbein University earn a median of about $63,243 a year early in their careers.

View All Systems Engineering Rankings >

Notes and References

This ranking is produced by College Factual, 2026 edition. The methodology measures the salaries systems engineering graduates go on to earn early in their careers, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard field-of-study earnings and IPEDS).

Ranking method: College Major Earnings · 3 schools evaluated.

*Salary figures reflect median early-career earnings (about 5 years after graduation) and may vary by how long a person takes to complete their degree.

• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), serves as the core of our data about colleges.
• Graduate earnings data comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard) field-of-study earnings.

More about our data sources and methodologies.