If you pursue a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #17 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 63 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of mechanical engineering. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 8,016 bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Mechanical Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The ME bachelor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on mechanical engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of mechanical engineering students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for mechanical engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor'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 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 Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Mechanical Engineering in the Southeast Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.
10 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Bachelor's in ME
Duke University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Durham.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering major at Duke University make $7,929 more than the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus is a good option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Georgia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Atlanta.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus receive $6,487 more than the average ME grad.
University of Florida is a great decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. UF is a fairly large public university located in the city of Gainesville.
Mechanical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Florida get an earnings boost of approximately $3,812 above the average income of mechanical engineering majors.
It's hard to beat Virginia Tech if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Blacksburg.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering program at Virginia Tech earn $5,189 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Clemson is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Clemson.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering program at Clemson University earn $3,013 above the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Auburn, Auburn is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the mechanical engineering program at Auburn University earn $3,742 above the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the small suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Virginia - Main Campus receive $3,435 more than the average ME grad.
UT Knoxville is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville earn $3,837 more than the typical ME graduate.
Here are some additional great schools for Mechanical Engineering students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.
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).