a master's degree in
engineering-related fields is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #46 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Engineering-Related Fields Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 482 master's degrees in engineering-related fields during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
Your choice of engineering-related fields for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on engineering-related fields students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of engineering-related fields students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
- Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
- Student Debt - How much debt engineering-related fields students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized engineering-related fields related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for engineering-related fields students working on their master's degree.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Engineering-Related Fields Master's Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.