If you're seeking a degree in civil engineering, you will have fewer peers than average since the major degree program is the #908 one in the country in terms of popularity.This may make is a little harder to find a school that is a good fit for you.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 8 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for civil engineering students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 131 degrees in civil engineering annually.
The civil engineering program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Civil Engineering rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for civil engineering schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
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 Civil Engineering Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Civil Engineering in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of civil engineering degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
University of California - Davis is a wonderful choice for students interested in a degree in civil engineering. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 10th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 9 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.
University of Washington - Seattle Campus is a wonderful choice for students interested in a degree in civil engineering. Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #44 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UW Seattle is a great university overall.
There were about 13 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at UW Seattle in the most recent year we have data available.
Northeastern University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in civil engineering. Northeastern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston. A Best Colleges rank of #33 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Northeastern is a great university overall.
There were approximately 2 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at Northeastern in the most recent data year.
It's difficult to beat University of Notre Dame if you want to pursue a degree in civil engineering. Located in the large suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Notre Dame is a great university overall.
There were roughly 9 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at Notre Dame in the most recent year we have data available.
WPI is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Worcester. A Best Colleges rank of #52 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means WPI is a great school overall.
There were roughly 3 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at WPI in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 22nd out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 45 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Daytona Beach, Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. This university ranks 7th out of 70 colleges for overall quality in the state of Florida.
There were about 21 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach in the most recent data year.
UNM is a very large public university located in the large city of Albuquerque. This university ranks 1st out of 24 schools for overall quality in the state of New Mexico.
There were about 3 civil engineering students who graduated with this degree at UNM in the most recent year we have data available.
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).
The civil engineering program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Civil Engineering rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for civil engineering schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
