Graduate study
Get a master's if the work you want asks for one, such as analog or RF integrated circuit design, or if an employer will pay for it. Do a PhD only if you want research or a specific field that expects one. Never pay for a PhD. A funded offer covers tuition and pays a stipend, and the real cost is five years of salary. If you are just starting, the getting into graduate study page has the order of what to learn and do before you apply.
What the degree adds to pay
Section titled “What the degree adds to pay”The master's premium is real and shrinking. NACE's survey data put the starting-salary advantage of an engineering master's over a bachelor's at 29.9 percent in 2022, and at 26.2 percent in 2025 (opens in a new tab). NACE projected an average starting salary of $94,086 for class of 2025 engineering master's graduates (opens in a new tab), and $92,873 for the class of 2026 (opens in a new tab).
Over a career, the gap stays. IEEE-USA's 2024 salary survey, on 2023 income, put the primary income of members with a PhD at $193,636, and the median for members with a master's in electrical or computer engineering at $182,500 (opens in a new tab). The same survey put the median for members with a bachelor's in electrical or computer engineering at $159,000 (opens in a new tab). Those figures cover every career stage, not starting pay.
Working engineers say the PhD gap is about what the same years of work would have paid. On an r/ECE thread about the PhD pay bump (opens in a new tab), one commenter wrote that a master's is a decent pay bump but a PhD generally is not, compared with years of growing in industry, and another wrote that if maximizing pay is the goal, stop at a master's. On a thread asking whether the master's was worth it (opens in a new tab), one engineer found a job that paid $25,000 more right after graduation, and another who hires analog designers said a master's is worth less than a year of experience.
Berkeley EECS tells undergraduates that a master's usually takes one to three years and a PhD at least five (opens in a new tab), and that a PhD is unlikely to be the best path if your main goal is lifetime pay.
Which fields expect one
Section titled “Which fields expect one”Chip design does. On an r/rfelectronics thread about a PhD in RF (opens in a new tab), a commenter said many RF design postings require a PhD. On the master's thread, one engineer said the degree was worth it because analog IC design work required it. Read the postings for the exact team you want, because the degree line differs by team. Purdue ECE describes a master's as a chance to go deeper into one technical specialty (opens in a new tab).
Embedded, test, power, and controls work does not expect one. The job postings in the section on where new-grad roles are posted on the first full-time role page ask for a bachelor's.
How students pay
Section titled “How students pay”Three ways to pay for the degree
Three ways to pay for a graduate degree. A funded PhD: at least five years, tuition waived and a stipend. A one-year master's: one extra year, and you pay tuition unless you hold an assistantship, with a coursework track as the one-year path. Employer tuition help: part time while you work, with up to 5,250 dollars a year tax free, more at some engineering employers, and the rest taxed.
A funded PhD pays you. MIT EECS's funding guide for 2023–24 says PhD students are fully funded for the whole program (opens in a new tab). MIT raised stipends 3.25 percent for 2025–26 (opens in a new tab). Public schools pay less, and the guarantee is the same. Illinois Grainger guarantees PhD students a funded appointment with a full tuition waiver and a stipend for five years (opens in a new tab). Georgia Tech ECE says about half of first-year PhD students start on a teaching assistantship until a research grant picks them up (opens in a new tab), and the stipend amount is in the offer letter. If an offer does not cover tuition and a stipend, decline it.
A master's usually costs tuition. The cheap route is the accelerated program at your own school. The University of Maine describes the pattern (opens in a new tab): a non-thesis master's in up to one extra year, or a thesis master's in up to two. Ask your department whether a teaching or research assistantship is open to master's students. At many schools the answer is sometimes.
An employer can pay for it. The IRS lets an employer pay up to $5,250 a year of an employee's education costs tax free, an amount indexed for inflation after 2026, and anything above that counts as taxable income (opens in a new tab). Large engineering employers often pay more than the tax-free amount. RTX says its Employee Scholar Program pays tuition, textbooks, and selected fees from your first day (opens in a new tab), and Lockheed Martin lists tuition assistance for degrees and certifications (opens in a new tab). Neither page gives a yearly cap, so ask the recruiter for the benefits document before you accept, and read the cap, the grade requirement, and the payback clause if you leave.
The GRE
Section titled “The GRE”Many engineering master's programs no longer require it. Colorado State's electrical and computer engineering department removed the requirement for a year, then made it optional (opens in a new tab). Some PhD programs have dropped it too. Stanford EE does not require the GRE from its MS or PhD applicants (opens in a new tab), and Illinois ECE no longer requires GRE scores for graduate applications (opens in a new tab). Check each program's page. If you do take it, one Illinois student on the HKN wiki suggests a summer before senior year (opens in a new tab), so you have time to prepare. For the essays, MIT's career office has a guide to statements of purpose and personal statements, with examples (opens in a new tab).
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