2025 Best Environmental Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California

If you plan on getting your master's degree in environmental engineering, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #133 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual reviewed 2 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of environmental engineering. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 84 master's degrees in environmental engineering during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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 environmental engineering students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of environmental engineering 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 easy is it for environmental engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized environmental engineering related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for environmental engineering students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Environmental 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 Environmental Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Environmental Engineering in California

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for environmental engineering students seeking a a master's degree.

Top California Schools for a Master's in Environmental Engineering

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

20 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in environmental engineering has to take a look at University of Southern California. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from University of Southern California

2

California State University - Fullerton
Fullerton, CA

55 Annual Graduates

$97,390 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in environmental engineering needs to look into California State University - Fullerton. Located in the large suburb of Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton is a public university with a very large student population.

Soon after graduation, environmental engineering master's recipients generally make an average of $97,390 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from California State University - Fullerton

Best Environmental Engineering Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Environmental Engineering Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	183	2
Oregon	158	10
Nevada	105	5
Alaska	52	1

View All Rankings >

Environmental Engineering Related Rankings by Major

One of 41 majors within the Engineering area of study, Environmental Engineering has other similar majors worth exploring.

Environmental Engineering Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Environmental Engineering	84

Majors Similar to Environmental Engineering

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering	1,742
Computer Engineering	1,245
Mechanical Engineering	1,131
Civil Engineering	962
Biomedical Engineering	538
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	355
Other Engineering	353
Operations Research	306
General Engineering	291
Systems Engineering	291

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Alesia Goosic. More about our data sources and methodologies.