--- title: Student Hackers Expect to Make Way More Than They Probably Will description: A new survey of college students with coding skills indicates that most expect to make between $70,000 and $100,000 right out of school. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Writer url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 350 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology published: '2016-05-18T14:24:04.000Z' modified: '2016-05-18T14:24:04.000Z' section: Education tags: - Coding - pubdesk - salaries - salary expectations - starting salaries - STEM word_count: 241 canonical: https://money.com/student-hacker-salaries/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![514498342](https://img.money.com/2016/05/computer-coder-salaries.jpeg) College students with software-coding expertise expect to be compensated handsomely for those skills, but the reality might not leave them as flush as they expect. A new survey of 1,700 students conducted at "hack" events by Devpost found that 26% expect to be paid between $50,000 and $70,000, and 32% expect to earn between $70,000 and $100,000 a year. An optimistic 24% expect to make six figures. Time for a reality check: According to the [National Association of Colleges and Employers](http://www.naceweb.org/s11182015/starting-salary-class-2015.aspx), the average starting salary for computer and information sciences graduates is $65,849. That's nothing to sneeze at, and it's considerably higher than the average starting salary for all new bachelor's degree holders of $50,651 — but it's also no six-figure paycheck. More than 90% of the students polled by Devpost also said that getting company equity as part of a compensation package was very important to them. They also expect the pay raises to keep coming, even though, as [Quartz](http://qz.com/686797/these-are-the-salary-expectations-of-students-who-know-how-to-code/) pointed out, annual raises aren't something workers -- especially those just launching their careers -- should count on these days. Just under 20% of respondents expected to make more than $150,000 annually within five years, and two-thirds expect to earn at least $70,000, [Devpost](http://studenthackers.devpost.com/) found. "Today’s students are in high demand and their expectations reflect it," Devpost said. Whether or not those coding skills will come through for them once they're out in the job market remains to be seen. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/student-hacker-salaries/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Preparing for College", "item": "https://money.com/preparing-for-college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Student Hackers Expect to Make Way More Than They Probably Will" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/student-hacker-salaries/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/student-hacker-salaries/", "name": "Student Hackers Expect to Make Way More Than They Probably Will", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-05-18T14:24:04.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-hacker-salaries/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-hacker-salaries/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-05-18T14:24:04.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Student Hackers Expect to Make Way More Than They Probably Will", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/computer-coder-salaries.jpeg", "width": 3000, "height": 2000, "caption": "computer-coder-salaries" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. 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