
Stanford Computer Science '11-'12 Salary Survey Results - ronyeh
<i>CS/EE Undergrads (135 responses; 380 job offers)</i><p>95% of the job offers were primarily located in the Bay Area, 5% were from the Midwest and East Coast. 10% of the job offers were from start-ups.<p>Offers ranged from $65,500 to $92,000. AVG: $79,360. MEDIAN: $ 78,750.<p>~70% of students were offered stock options. ~80% of students were offered signing bonuses. ~60% were offered relocation assistance and there were others who did not report the statistics since relocating did not apply. Relocation assistance ranged from $3,000 to $10,000 with an average of $3,500. Bonuses ranged from $5,000 to $25,000 with an average of $5,700.<p><i>CS/EE Masters (150 responses; 345 job offers)</i><p>94% of the job offers were primarily located in the Bay Area, 6% were in the Midwest and East Coast. 15% of the job offers were from start-ups.<p>Offers ranged from $70,000 to $105,300. AVG: $98,246. MEDIAN: $87,650.<p>~78% of students were offered stock options. ~66% of students were offered signing bonuses. ~43% were offered relocation assistance and there others who did not report the statistics since relocating did not apply. Relocation assistance ranged from $3,000 to $8,000 with an average of $2,500. Bonuses ranged from $5,000 to $35,000 with an average of $6,325.<p><i>CS/EE PhDs (30 responses; 75 job offers)</i><p>80% of the job offers were primarily located in the Bay Area, 20% were in the Midwest and East Coast. 30% of the job offers were from start-ups. 5% of the job offers were from a university.<p>Offers ranged from $133,250 to $146,980. AVG: $143,083. MEDIAN: $140,115.<p>~50% of students were offered stock options. ~50% of students were offered signing bonuses. Bonuses ranged from $5,000 to $19,500 with an average of $7,200. Relocation assistance ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 with an average of $6,500. However, they may not have reported on all the benefits they received.<p>Compare with the previous year's survey: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3141716
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jasonkester
Glad to see salaries are going up for new grads (at least for Stanford grads
with ludicrous offers from Google and Facebook). Pushing salaries up across
the industry can only be a good thing for pretty much everybody here.

Definitely a refreshing change from the GlassDoor surveys we keep seeing here
telling people to hold on tight to that $70k salary you deserve from your 7-10
years of experience.

All that's missing now is the obligitory dismissive comment from that DC
government contractor guy who thinks we're all really making $30k/year and
lying about it (and says as much on every single discussion about salary that
comes through this site).

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caw
I've held a perception that Stanford students have ludicrous offers from Bay
Area companies, and I definitely expected the average to be higher due to cost
of living.

However, these numbers really are similar to Georgia Tech's CS numbers for
2012, and I know there's a lot of east coast companies that pull GT graduates.

[http://www.adors.gatech.edu/commencement/salary_report_resul...](http://www.adors.gatech.edu/commencement/salary_report_result.cfm?college=TOTAL&level=1&surveyid=62&Submit=Submit)

The College of Computing has better numbers (including relocation and stock
option numbers), but that link is the rollup for the school. I can't find the
CoC specific ones.

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cup
I'm assuming these are jobs offered straight after graduating.

I wonder what the trend looks like 5 - 10 years post graduation and whether
experience in the field will ever close the gap between an undergraduate and a
postgraduate. An extra $60K a year is a huge incentive to undertake a PhD.

I wonder what the level of employment is between different groups.

~~~
austinee
I had the opposite thought: a PhD might be worthwhile if you really love
research, but it's hard to imagine making up the opportunity cost.

What's the normal time to PhD? 5-7 years? Five years out of school, my base
salary was barely below the range, and salary + bonus was just a bit above the
top end of the range. Seven years out of school (without a PhD), my base
salary is in the range, and my salary + bonus is substantially above the
range. In the meantime, I've been making a six figure salary instead of a grad
student stipend.

I sometimes regret not doing a PhD, but it's definitely not because of the
money.

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kolbe
What does "offered stock options" mean? I'd like to have a complete
understanding to total average comp, but I need to know the total present
value of these stock options.

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ronyeh
The Computer Forum doesn't calculate stats on stock options, because "stock
options offered by companies are so different in their actual and potential
values."

So it just means that they were offered options as part of their compensation
package.

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onlyup
Damn.. I am getting paid less than that :(

No mention of the average number of job offers? From last year: "Students who
replied averaged about 2 job offers."

~~~
ronyeh
Undergrads: ~2 offers

MS: ~3 offers

PhD: ~3 offers

I edited the original report to fit it into 2K chars. The report is compiled
by the Stanford Computer Forum, and sent out to the jobs mailing list each
year.

