2023 Mechanical Engineering Popularity

POPULARITY

Mechanical engineering is the 16th most popular degree in America, with 37,343 students receiving their bachelors degree last year. It just beat out #17 Computer and Information Sciences, and narrowly lost to #15 Economics.

The degree is offered at a total of 372 colleges across the nation, and is the 61st most widely offered degree. Given that mechanical engineering is offered at 48% of the Top 100 Best Colleges in America, you can be sure this is a critical degree and the skillsets acquired are likely to last for a long time.

It is also worth noting that in the neighborhood of two out of three colleges offering mechanical engineering are public making it a quite accessible field.

The southeast produces the most mechanical engineering graduates, largely led by University of Central Florida, while it’s the Big Ten Conference that leads conference totals. As far as states, California ranks highest, with particular help from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and University of California-Irvine.

All that being said, no individual school produces more mechanical engineering graduates than Naval Postgraduate School, which graduated 552 students last year alone. Although size is critical, another important factor to consider is the program’s density (the percent of all students that study mechanical engineering). More students studied mechanical engineering as a percentage of total students at Kettering University than any other college.