2025 Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California
5
Colleges in California
135
Doctor's Degrees
If you pursue a doctor's degree in
civil engineering, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #29 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 5 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 135 doctor's degrees in civil engineering during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Civil Engineering School for Your Doctor's Degree
The civil eng doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 civil engineering students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of civil engineering students who choose to seek a doctor'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 easy is it for civil engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized civil engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for civil engineering students working on their doctor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Civil Engineering Schools
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 Doctor's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.