The 50 colleges that score highest for Mechanical 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 | Stanford University | CA | Median earnings $117,072 · 56 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MA | Median earnings $131,967 · 106 graduates last year · 8% of the school's degrees | |
| 3 | Columbia University in the City of New York | NY | Median earnings $111,491 · 81 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 4 | Johns Hopkins University | MD | Median earnings $110,210 · 45 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 5 | University of Pennsylvania | PA | Median earnings $114,492 · 65 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 6 | Cornell University | NY | Median earnings $112,212 · 152 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 7 | University of California-Los Angeles | CA | Median earnings $108,875 · 186 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 8 | University of California-Berkeley | CA | Median earnings $119,371 · 213 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 9 | Princeton University | NJ | Median earnings $115,927 · 37 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 10 | Duke University | NC | Median earnings $120,991 · 75 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 11 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | MI | Median earnings $105,888 · 277 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 12 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | GA | Median earnings $99,955 · 473 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 13 | Carnegie Mellon University | PA | Median earnings $105,623 · 114 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 14 | University of Southern California | CA | Median earnings $104,649 · 93 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 15 | Yale University | CT | Median earnings $100,533 (college-wide) · 26 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 16 | Northwestern University | IL | Median earnings $98,277 · 78 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 17 | California Institute of Technology | CA | Median earnings $128,566 (college-wide) · 38 graduates last year · 16% of the school's degrees | |
| 18 | The University of Texas at Austin | TX | Median earnings $104,523 · 283 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 19 | University of California-San Diego | CA | Median earnings $104,229 · 180 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 20 | Purdue University-Main Campus | IN | Median earnings $102,572 · 510 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 21 | Rice University | TX | Median earnings $108,970 · 60 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 22 | Vanderbilt University | TN | Median earnings $101,345 · 41 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 23 | University of Maryland-College Park | MD | Median earnings $100,003 · 302 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 24 | University of Florida | FL | Median earnings $97,113 · 269 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 25 | Washington University in St Louis | MO | Median earnings $95,965 · 113 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 26 | University of Notre Dame | IN | Median earnings $99,859 · 116 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 27 | Boston University | MA | Median earnings $95,757 · 132 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 28 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus | WA | Median earnings $102,078 · 143 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 29 | University of California-Irvine | CA | Median earnings $99,111 · 208 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 30 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | IL | Median earnings $95,329 · 269 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 31 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | WI | Median earnings $95,114 · 254 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 32 | New York University | NY | Median earnings $91,821 · 82 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 33 | Tufts University | MA | Median earnings $101,196 · 72 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 34 | Harvard University | MA | Median earnings $101,817 (college-wide) · 33 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 35 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | Median earnings $97,903 · 486 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 36 | University of California-Santa Barbara | CA | Median earnings $104,336 · 87 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 37 | University of California-Davis | CA | Median earnings $102,161 · 151 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 38 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | OH | Median earnings $96,418 · 297 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 39 | Northeastern University | MA | Median earnings $103,384 · 244 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 40 | George Washington University | DC | Median earnings $101,196 · 39 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 41 | University of Rochester | NY | Median earnings $95,060 · 43 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 42 | Case Western Reserve University | OH | Median earnings $94,197 · 93 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 43 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick | NJ | Median earnings $94,561 · 173 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 44 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | VA | Median earnings $96,376 · 352 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 45 | University of Colorado Boulder | CO | Median earnings $93,073 · 283 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 46 | University of Virginia-Main Campus | VA | Median earnings $94,881 · 72 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 47 | Michigan State University | MI | Median earnings $97,946 · 262 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 48 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | PA | Median earnings $87,997 · 385 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 49 | Colorado School of Mines | CO | Median earnings $97,087 · 301 graduates last year · 25% of the school's degrees | |
| 50 | Stony Brook University | NY | Median earnings $91,650 · 100 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees |
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