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Ranking of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Schools

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The rankings below have been generated using the priorities you set. You can change your priorities or get rankings for a different field.

About the rankings »

The box plots in the "Rank" column show the uncertainty in each program's ranking. Learn more.
Hover over table headers to see more details.
Data sources and weights for each item are listed at the bottom of the page.
Better values are shown in green. Worse values are shown in red.
Learn more about the ranking algorithm.

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Your Ranking of Mechanical Engineering PhD Programs

Programs 1–30

Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	In-State Tuition	Room Board
1-8	California Institute of Technology Applied Mechanics	19-93	1-3	1-18	79%	2-9	$33,324	NA
1-11	Brown University Engineering: Solid Mechanics	5-24	1-4	27-88	85%	44-97	$38,048	NA
1-10	Princeton University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering	5-10	3-10	5-34	81%	21-45	$35,340	NA
1-9	Stanford University Mechanical Engineering	2-6	2-5	20-56	73%	48-95	$37,380	NA
1-10	University of California-Berkeley Mechanical Engineering	1-3	5-14	39-77	61%	39-76	$7,836	$10,036
2-11	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Mechanical Engineering	1-6	4-11	41-75	61%	29-61	$17,286	$8,924
3-12	University of California-Santa Barbara Mechanical Engineering	6-15	6-15	9-49	75%	40-87	$7,836	$10,109
3-14	Northwestern University Mechanical Engineering	3-6	2-5	7-40	72%	41-85	$38,400	$11,703
4-15	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Mechanical Engineering	15-32	6-21	17-56	84%	40-85	$9,318	NA
3-15	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Mechanical Engineering	9-19	10-34	3-29	75%	54-100	$11,212	$7,392
6-17	California Institute of Technology Mechanical Engineering	7-18	7-18	5-42	79%	16-40	$33,324	NA
6-17	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mechanical Engineering	1-3	7-19	40-85	73%	65-105	$37,510	NA
7-19	University of Colorado at Boulder Mechanical Engineering	9-19	13-40	22-65	84%	46-89	$8,190	NA
9-19	University of California-San Diego Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering	7-17	8-23	56-94	73%	26-57	$7,836	$10,052
7-20	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Theoretical and Applied Mechanics	25-55	7-27	18-58	84%	69-113	$9,318	NA
Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	In-State Tuition	Room Board
11-23	Purdue University-Main Campus Mechanical Engineering	6-19	17-45	57-88	78%	43-90	$8,183	$8,710
11-25	Florida State University Mechanical Engineering	46-101	14-45	1-17	67%	7-20	$6,368	$8,000
15-30	Duke University Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science	12-25	13-37	8-36	81%	30-74	$37,700	$8,200
15-32	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Mechanical Engineering	5-18	11-33	44-80	60%	80-112	$6,884	$10,096
15-35	University of Louisville Mechanical Engineering	49-103	35-80	1-17	NA	5-15	$8,622	$6,602
15-36	Arizona State University Mechanical Engineering	34-74	17-49	4-41	65%	14-32	$7,128	$8,156
16-34	Johns Hopkins University Mechanical Engineering	10-24	7-20	40-82	76%	75-110	$39,150	NA
16-39	Washington State University Mechanical Engineering	31-88	30-63	1-16	71%	17-40	$7,944	$8,780
17-43	University of Kansas Mechanical Engineering	28-84	77-114	2-32	91%	14-36	$6,492	$6,854
19-41	Rice University Mechanical Engineering	20-52	19-44	35-78	89%	5-14	$28,665	$11,230
18-40	University of Central Florida Mechanical Engineering	74-110	28-71	2-23	85%	16-37	$5,701	$8,574
19-41	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Mechanical Engineering	12-28	18-51	9-44	66%	89-116	$15,446	NA
18-44	University of Maryland-College Park Mechanical Engineering	12-55	12-36	75-105	74%	59-104	$8,478	$9,575
19-48	Mississippi State University Mechanical Engineering (degree: PhD in Engineering)	32-91	32-75	1-11	66%*	114-123	$5,151	$7,333
20-46	University of Wisconsin-Madison Mechanical Engineering	22-45	26-72	54-95	74%	42-87	$9,500	$8,040

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Item Descriptions

Rank: A range indicating how this program ranked in 500 simulated rankings based on your priorities. Programs are sorted by their median rank. Learn more.
NRC regression-based quality measure (Regres Quality): The NRC's measurements of overall program quality are based on 20 key variables (19 in the humanities) such as GRE scores, student support and faculty publications. To calculate the regression-based quality measure, the relative importance, or weight, of a variable was set by the extent that it correlated with programs viewed most favorably by evaluators in each field. Learn more. Your weight = 3. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
NRC survey-based quality measure (Survey Quality): The NRC's measurements of overall program quality are based on 20 key variables (19 in the humanities) such as GRE scores, student support and faculty publications. To calculate the survey-based quality measure, evaluators in each field identified the variables that they considered to be the most important indicators of program quality. Learn more. Your weight = 5. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Student support and outcomes (Student Outcomes): This variable is a composite of other measures of student support and outcomes, including 6-year or 8-year graduation rates (for non-humanities programs and humanities programs, respectively), time to degree, job placement within academia, percentage of first-year students with full financial support, and whether a program collects data about the employment outcomes of its graduates. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Placement Rate (Jobs at Grad): This variable shows the percentage of students with definite plans at graduation (either a job or a postdoctoral position), based on data from the student questionnaire. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: SED, 2000–2004)
Diversity in the academic environment (Diversity): This variable shows a composite measure of diversity generated by the National Research Council. It includes data on percent of faculty and students from underrepresented minorities, percent of female faculty and students, and percent of international faculty and students. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 1. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
In-State Graduate Tuition (In-State Tuition): This variable shows the amount of tuition paid by graduate students who are permanent residents of the same state in which the program is based. Your weight = -2. Smaller values are better. (Source: IPEDS, 2009)
Off Campus Room and Board (Room Board): This variable shows the estimated cost of housing and meals for a typical student sharing a room with one other student over the course of one academic year. Your weight = -2. Smaller values are better. (Source: IPEDS, 2009)

Data Sources

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System: IPEDS is an annual, comprehensive set of surveys of all colleges and universities in the United States. The surveys are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Learn more
National Research Council: The National Research Council conducts periodic assessments of doctoral programs in the United States. Our data comes from the most recent assessment in 2010. Learn more
Survey of Earned Doctorates: The NSF/NIH/NEH/USED/USDA/NASA Survey of Earned Doctorates is an annual survey of all new recipients of doctorates from US universities at graduation. The average of the response rates for the 2000–2004 surveys was 92%. Learn more
Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: The Survey is an annual assessment of the number and characteristics of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in science, engineering, and health-related fields It is conducted by the National Science Foundation. Learn more

* Value is missing. The value shown is based on the average for other programs in the same field. Learn more.

The graduate school rankings on PhDs.org have been made possible by grants from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
The National Postdoctoral Association and The Center for Science and the Media have served as the project's fiscal sponsors.