2025 Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

Ranked #17 in popularity, mechanical engineering is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

College Factual reviewed 63 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of mechanical engineering. Combined, these schools handed out 1,842 doctor's degrees in mechanical engineering to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Mechanical Engineering School for Your Doctor's Degree

The me doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality me program can vary widely even among the top schools. 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 many resources a school devotes to mechanical engineering students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of mechanical 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 mechanical 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 mechanical engineering related body.

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

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Mechanical Engineering in the United States

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

12 Top Schools for a Doctorate in ME

1

Stanford University
Stanford, CA

42 Annual Graduates

$143,758 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering has to take a look at Stanford University. Stanford is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford.

Mechanical Engineering doctor's degree recipients from Stanford University get an earnings boost of around $29,557 over the average earnings of mechanical engineering graduates.

More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University

2

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA

53 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat Massachusetts Institute of Technology if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the midsize city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

42 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat University of California - Berkeley if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of California - Berkeley

4

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA

35 Annual Graduates

Carnegie Mellon University is a good choice for students pursuing a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University

5

Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

23 Annual Graduates

Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Ithaca.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Cornell University

6

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

52 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

7

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

21 Annual Graduates

Johns Hopkins is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Baltimore.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University

8

Duke University
Durham, NC

13 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Duke University

9

Purdue University - Main Campus
West Lafayette, IN

85 Annual Graduates

$119,547 Median Starting Salary

Purdue is a very large public university located in the city of West Lafayette.

Doctorate recipients from the mechanical engineering major at Purdue University - Main Campus get $5,346 above the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Purdue University - Main Campus

10

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

12 Annual Graduates

Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University

11

Texas A&M University - College Station
College Station, TX

54 Annual Graduates

Located in the medium-sized city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University - College Station

12

Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus
Atlanta, GA

45 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a public school with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus

Additional Noteworthy Schools

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank	College	Location
13	Columbia University in the City of New York	New York, NY
14	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	Ann Arbor, MI
15	University of Maryland - College Park	College Park, MD
16	University of Notre Dame	Notre Dame, IN
17	Northeastern University	Boston, MA
18	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, VA
19	Case Western Reserve University	Cleveland, OH
20	Michigan State University	East Lansing, MI
21	The University of Texas at Austin	Austin, TX

Mechanical Engineering by Region

View the Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to ME

Mechanical Engineering is one of 41 different types of Engineering programs to choose from.

ME Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Mechanical Engineering	1,842

Majors Similar to ME

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering	2,178
Biomedical Engineering	1,361
Civil Engineering	1,240
Chemical Engineering	1,120
Materials Engineering	772
General Engineering	458
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	428
Computer Engineering	392
Industrial Engineering	346
Other Engineering	219

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 Michel Villeneuve. More about our data sources and methodologies.