a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #51 out of 363 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 2023, College Factual analyzed 17 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,225 bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Chemical Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of chemical engineering for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality chem eng program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor'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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on chemical engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of chemical engineering students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for chemical engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized chemical engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for chemical engineering students working on their bachelor's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list to help you make the college decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Chemical Engineering in the Southwest Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.
10 Top Southwest Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Chem Eng
Texas A&M University - College Station is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of College Station.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Texas A&M University - College Station get an earnings boost of about $7,975 over the typical income of chemical engineering graduates.
It is hard to beat Rice University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Located in the large city of Houston, Rice is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Rice University receive an earnings boost of about $10,666 above the average earnings of chemical engineering majors.
The University of Texas at Austin is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. UT Austin is a fairly large public university located in the city of Austin.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from The University of Texas at Austin earn a boost of approximately $9,173 above the average income of chemical engineering majors.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering has to take a look at Arizona State University - Tempe. Located in the midsize city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the chem eng program report average early career earnings of $65,389.
University of Arizona is a very large public university located in the city of Tucson.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering degree program at University of Arizona earn $3,354 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Lubbock, Texas Tech is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Texas Tech University earn a boost of about $7,018 above the typical income of chemical engineering graduates.
UH is a fairly large public university located in the city of Houston.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Houston earn a boost of around $8,891 over the typical income of chemical engineering majors.
Located in the distant town of Stillwater, OSU is a public university with a very large student population.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University - Main Campus receive $4,227 more than the average chem eng graduate.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
college factual
Your choice of chemical engineering for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality chem eng program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
