Of the 431 Class of 2021 Rose-Hulman graduates, 426 have been placed within six months of graduation, with an average starting salary of $73,800 and a high reported offer of $145,000. That’s a 99% placement rate, putting Rose-Hulman once again near the top of all colleges and universities across the country while continuing to showcase the top-ranked STEM institution’s return on investment.

“Career preparation and return on investment have been long been hallmarks of a Rose-Hulman education, leading to successful careers for our alumni throughout the world,” says Rose-Hulman President Robert A. Coons. “Employers have come to value the qualities that our alumni bring to their companies.”

That return on investment extends beyond the institution’s placement rate. The most recent PayScale report lists Rose-Hulman in the top 1% in the nation and No. 1 in Indiana in ROI. Credible, a financial technology company, ranked Rose-Hulman No. 19 in the nation in its list of top-25 universities with the best return on investment. A Princeton Review student survey earlier this year ranked Rose-Hulman No. 1 for internship opportunities and No. 8 for career services nationally among private colleges and universities – qualities that lead to a history of strong job and graduate school placement. Rose-Hulman has also been ranked as the top undergraduate STEM college by U.S. News & World Report for the past 23 years.

Director of Career Services and Employer Relations Scott Tieken reports, “We work with students from their first year on campus through them becoming alumni – searching for internships, full-time employment opportunities, and graduate school acceptances. That attention also centers around building relationships with employers and graduate schools, and bringing new opportunities to help students realize their career aspirations.”

Tieken acknowledges that Rose-Hulman’s annual placement rate is based upon a review of all 100% of the institute’s graduates. This is different than the approach of most other colleges which base their placement rates upon a 50% to 60% knowledge rate of all members within a graduating class.

Companies extending the most job offers to Class of 2021 members were Allison Transmission, Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal), Collins Aerospace, Data Centric Solutions, DMI, Eli Lilly and Company, James Hardie Industries, Kiewit, Milwaukee Tool, Naval Surface Warfare Center (Crane, Indiana), Texas Instruments, and Raytheon.

Tieken points out that several new career opportunities have come from companies across the U.S. that are recruiting at Rose-Hulman and made job offers to graduates for the first time – after contacts through on-campus and virtual recruiting.

Graduate schools accepting members of the Class of 2021 included Yale, Duke, Rice, Columbia, Cornell, and University of Pennsylvania.

Enhancing Rose-Hulman students’ placement success is the fact that 85% of students complete at least one internship, co-op or research experience during their college careers, 60% have two or more experiences, and 41% have completed at least one experiential learning activity during their collegiate careers.

“The opportunities are endless for our students and alumni. Rose-Hulman is well respected within the STEM community,” says Coons. “As we attract more top STEM-minded students from all across the U.S., we’re also seeing similar growth in the number of employers like Apple, SpaceX, Tesla and others hiring more and more Rose-Hulman graduates each year.”

Placement prospects for next year’s graduating class are also off to a strong start, with nearly 40% of current seniors already accepting jobs before receiving their degrees next May. Tieken reports that more than 8,000 full-time, internship and co-op positions are currently posted specifically for Rose-Hulman students on the Handshake career prospect website.

Watch this video to take a look inside the 2021 Fall Career Fair.