Ranked #17 in popularity, mechanical engineering is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2023, College Factual analyzed 54 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,256 bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Mechanical Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of mechanical engineering for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
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 - How many other mechanical engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 much debt mechanical engineering students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
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 bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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 Mechanical Engineering in the Great Lakes Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.
10 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in ME
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is a good choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. U-M is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor.
Mechanical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor receive an earnings boost of approximately $8,293 over the average income of mechanical engineering graduates.
University of Notre Dame is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the large suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Notre Dame make $5,569 more than the standard ME student.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering has to look into Purdue University - Main Campus. Purdue is a fairly large public university located in the city of West Lafayette.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering program at Purdue University - Main Campus earn $6,442 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Northwestern University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Northwestern University earn $3,815 more than the average ME student.
Located in the small city of Terre Haute, Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology receive $5,195 more than the typical ME grad.
Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Mechanical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Madison get an earnings boost of about $3,078 over the average earnings of mechanical engineering majors.
Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering major at Michigan State University make $4,200 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the town of Houghton, Michigan Tech is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering program at Michigan Technological University get $2,420 above the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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 mechanical engineering for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
