[vsnap]

55K and a job right out of school. Things haven't changed since the eighties when
1. I was in Riddle in the flight program.
2. My wife was in Riddle aerospace program. Masters from AFIT.
She has worked for G.E. (contract), Pratt&Whitney, now Rolls Royce...HMM she gets around..She is good at what she does, it is amazing how much work goes into one little blade on a big fan. It only takes us about 1 sec. to tear it up in flight...
Well both flow in cycles..I haven't heard of anyone in the turbo-fan engineering department making that kind of cash "out of school", so maybe there is another area for the big bucks... If it is in Seattle or most the west coast for that matter $55,000 equates $35,000 in the rest of the world. If your interested in flying, graduate young and set you feet cuz that is one rough ride..
What I am trying to say is don't listen to the schools, talk (like you are) too people in the business, find the truth that way...
Other schools to look at,
U.N. Dakota
Purdue
One thing to ask people is what schools does the company you work for hire from? From what my wife has said some of these companies like diffrent schools for diffrent things and can be very selective. It seemed P&W was quite selective..
So, find your field, ask ask ask, and once in school do as much internshipping in the big companies as possible. It actually will help you more then you can imagine.