2024 Best Colleges for Mechanical Engineering

SUMMARY

Choosing to study Mechanical Engineering is a valuable choice and generally a necessary first step for undergraduates planning to enter a career as a mechanical design engineer, a product development engineer, or a senior mechanical engineer. Interestingly, mechanical engineering is a very popular major choice, coming in at the 16th most popular area of study. Last year, there were 37,343 mechanical engineering degrees conferred. In-state tuition for mechanical engineering at private schools is, on average, 4 times more expensive than their public counterparts.

There are 372 colleges that offer mechanical engineering. 372 institutions is fairly average in terms of the number of institutions which offer each degree. If you are hoping to surround yourself with other mechanical engineering majors, look at universities in California which have the most undergraduates admitted to mechanical engineering annually. More generally, the best region to get a degree in mechanical engineering is in the Southeast region with University of Central Florida, Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection for the best conference to study mechanical engineering is the Big Ten Conference with University of Maryland-College Park, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, and Purdue University-Main Campus representing the conference. On that topic, our choice for the best school for mechanical engineering is Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and here you can find our comprehensive list for the best colleges.

The objectively 'best' school might not actually be the 'best' school for you. There might be lots of facets to weigh when selecting ​university. Features such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely alter your choice of where to go to university. Here at authority.org, we have examined the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are interested in which mechanical engineering school has the top college campus, the answer is Northeastern University. If you are very interested in which school boasts the finest campus, then we have an entire list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, professor reviews, government databases, and more to evaluate every U.S. major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our comprehensive list for the schools with the best student life&nbspand, from that list, our pick for the college with the best student life for mechanical engineering is Cornell University. Are you curious why? Continue reading to find out more about our top choices. Some of our conclusions just might shock you.

If expense is a major deciding factor in your decision on where to go to university, you might consider avoiding Cornell University. Cornell University&nbspis the most expensive school for mechanical engineering, at least for out of state enrollment. That being said, we have an entire page for the most expensive&nbspuniversities that might put the expense of Cornell University&nbspinto perspective. Additionally, you could be interested to know that mechanical engineering is the 51st most expensive degree in the nation, with an average cost of $49,200. To zoom out a little, the most expensive state for mechanical engineering on our list is Massachusetts with tuition and fees at the primary three institutions Boston University at $54,720, Massachusetts Institute of Technology of $53,450, and tuition and fees at Tufts University of $53,450. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region for mechanical engineering is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Yale University with a cost of $55,500, Boston University with a cost of $54,720, and Tufts University with a cost of $57,324.

Our cheapest region for mechanical engineering is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Idaho with a cost of $4,208, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and University of Wyoming with a cost of $13,392. On the bright side, the most affordable college for mechanical engineering is University of Florida. Authority's entire list of the most affordable universities can be explored here.

In-state attendees can anticipate paying in the neighborhood of $10,600 for a degree in mechanical engineering. That cost balloons substantially to an average of $25,400 for an out-of-state public-school undergraduate. As such, you might be interested in our selection for the college with the best value for mechanical engineering: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On this page you can find our comprehensive list of the colleges we believe to be the best value&nbspoverall. With that said, this discussion is predicated on out-of-state tuition costs. The value proposition changes when it comes to in-state tuition, but we do not know where you live (and are not trying to collect that kind of data).

Earnings for mechanical engineering majors differ widely, but within two-years of graduation graduates will often earn around $60,900. While there can be a lot of variation in earnings potential; highest paid earners can make up to $105,000. Even straight out of school, the lowest earning positions within the mechanical engineering field make $36,000, which could be worse. The highest earning graduates for mechanical engineering studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand if you want to find the colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.

The overall diversity of mechanical engineering stands solid, ranking in the 60th percentile of all majors. The school with the highest composite diversity for mechanical engineering is Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand here you can find our general list for the universities which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of Mechanical Engineering stands only in the 30th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually greater, in the 62nd percentile. White collegians compose the largest proportion at 55% of scholars studying mechanical engineering. Additionally, 82% of students seeking a mechanical engineering major are men.

The median ranking for mechanical engineering's professors is 3.6 stars, which is 10% below the median score across all majors; which is a subpar ranking. If you want to find the most popular mechanical engineering instructor in the country, take a look at Trivikrama Pala from New Jersey Institute of Technology. It might come as a shock, but the top ranked mechanical engineering professors according to students come from Concordia University-Chicago. If we incorporate data beyond just rankings we find that the college with the overall best instructors for mechanical engineering is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with many of the best examples of professors in the U.S.

Finally, the most difficult college to get into for mechanical engineering is Stanford University. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we do have a comprehensive page for the hardest colleges to get into. But, we do hope you understand that looking at the education process from context primarily informed by superlatives can create issues. We at Authority encourage you to explore our more focused pages on different universities and explore a few of our helpful background articles on important details to look for as you continue your college search.