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.
College Factual reviewed 8 schools in Tennessee to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of mechanical engineering. Combined, these schools handed out 538 bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering to qualified students.
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 take this into account 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 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
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.
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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in Tennessee list to help you make the college decision.
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 Tennessee
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering has to look into Vanderbilt University. Located in the city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University receive $5,956 more than the standard ME student.
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville is a great decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. UT Knoxville is a very large public university located in the city of Knoxville.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville make $3,573 more than the average ME student.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering needs to look into Tennessee Technological University. Located in the town of Cookeville, Tennessee Tech University is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Soon after graduation, ME bachelor's recipients usually make an average of $62,943 at the beginning of their careers.
The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga is a great option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. UT Chattanooga is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Chattanooga.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the ME program state that they receive average early career income of $63,841.
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).