"Be proactive, not passive. Do not wait for people to ask for help. Make things happen. Stimulate others. Invent projects that need doing. Seek allies and help. Don't worry about career or money or having enough to do. Just do good work and all the rest will happen." - Laurie Olin, FASLA

Every year only 1,200 to 1,300 students graduate with a degree in landscape architecture. This number has held steady in the last few years, despite the strong job market.

Job offers for these new hires are brisk with upwards of twenty percent of all respondents reporting that they are out to hire more landscape architects, according to the ASLA 1998 Salary Survey. According to the August 2000 Graduating Student Survey published by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the average salary of students recently graduating was $32,600 for all respondents. For undergraduate students the average salary was $31,100 and $39,400 for graduate students.

Almost four-fifths of recent graduate respondents (79%) report that the job offer they've accepted includes major medical benefits. Other typical benefits include a 401K-retirement plan, life insurance, profit sharing, professional dues, and car allowance, among other items.

Top earning possibilities for landscape architects are in the six figures for top government positions and for successful firms.

Overall, landscape architects' average salaries have surpassed those of architects, according to the results of the ASLA salary survey ,compared to those of an existing similar survey by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Survey results show the average salary of the landscape architect in America today is $52,886, and it goes to a professional who has been practicing for 15.9 years. The comparison of ASLA and AIA survey data, adjusted to compensate for the ten months of difference in time between the two surveys, shows that landscape architects report a higher average income by about $6,000.