The 50 colleges that score highest for Civil engineering on public federal data: selectivity, graduate earnings, program size, academic strength and graduate depth. It is a starting point for your research, not a judgment of quality.
50 colleges · each name links to its page, with sources · data snapshot October 2, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026
How we rank programs · showing the top 50 of 50 core colleges ranked, those with enough graduates and earnings data · All top-programs lists
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| Rank | College | State | What we measured | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Columbia University in the City of New York | NY | Median earnings $108,246 · 18 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 2 | University of California-Berkeley | CA | Median earnings $108,548 · 112 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 3 | Northwestern University | IL | Median earnings $110,609 (field-wide) · 21 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 4 | University of California-Los Angeles | CA | Median earnings $97,092 · 90 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 5 | Duke University | NC | Median earnings $143,003 (field-wide) · 14 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 6 | Carnegie Mellon University | PA | Median earnings $105,199 · 21 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 7 | New York University | NY | Median earnings $94,867 · 46 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 8 | University of Southern California | CA | Median earnings $106,308 · 34 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 9 | Princeton University | NJ | Median earnings $117,748 (field-wide) · 43 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 10 | Cornell University | NY | Median earnings $91,242 · 33 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 11 | The University of Texas at Austin | TX | Median earnings $95,271 · 121 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 12 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | IL | Median earnings $91,650 · 189 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 13 | University of California-Davis | CA | Median earnings $95,939 · 113 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 14 | University of California-San Diego | CA | Median earnings $91,745 · 96 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 15 | Rice University | TX | Median earnings $120,189 (field-wide) · 14 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 16 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | MI | Median earnings $89,165 · 49 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 17 | University of Maryland-College Park | MD | Median earnings $93,280 · 118 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 18 | University of Virginia-Main Campus | VA | Median earnings $91,651 · 40 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 19 | University of California-Irvine | CA | Median earnings $96,354 · 64 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 20 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus | WA | Median earnings $92,010 · 79 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 21 | Purdue University-Main Campus | IN | Median earnings $90,873 · 155 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 22 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | Median earnings $92,433 · 233 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 23 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | GA | Median earnings $85,133 · 112 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 24 | Northeastern University | MA | Median earnings $100,613 · 84 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 25 | University of Notre Dame | IN | Median earnings $85,781 · 43 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 26 | University of Florida | FL | Median earnings $86,453 · 104 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 27 | Tufts University | MA | Median earnings $88,924 · 20 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 28 | Vanderbilt University | TN | Median earnings $82,744 · 11 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 29 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | WI | Median earnings $87,691 · 89 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 30 | George Washington University | DC | Median earnings $100,990 · 13 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 31 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | OH | Median earnings $85,202 · 119 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 32 | University of Colorado Boulder | CO | Median earnings $94,960 · 69 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 33 | Stony Brook University | NY | Median earnings $92,908 · 42 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 34 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | VA | Median earnings $88,142 · 215 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 35 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick | NJ | Median earnings $87,557 · 68 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 36 | San Diego State University | CA | Median earnings $95,865 · 144 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 37 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | PA | Median earnings $81,403 · 165 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 38 | Syracuse University | NY | Median earnings $88,996 · 34 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 39 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh | NC | Median earnings $85,568 · 115 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 40 | Lehigh University | PA | Median earnings $91,856 · 23 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 41 | University at Buffalo | NY | Median earnings $84,868 · 135 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 42 | Clemson University | SC | Median earnings $84,873 · 149 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 43 | Michigan State University | MI | Median earnings $90,650 · 87 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 44 | New Jersey Institute of Technology | NJ | Median earnings $87,389 · 164 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 45 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | CA | Median earnings $101,072 · 126 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 46 | University of Central Florida | FL | Median earnings $86,803 · 145 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 47 | Colorado School of Mines | CO | Median earnings $94,228 · 71 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 48 | Florida State University | FL | Median earnings $84,340 · 112 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 49 | University of Massachusetts-Amherst | MA | Median earnings $88,076 · 97 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 50 | Case Western Reserve University | OH | Median earnings $79,980 · 20 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees |
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