Petroleum Engineering isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #174 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Petroleum Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 74 bachelor's degrees in petroleum engineering during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Petroleum Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The petroleum engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality petroleum engineering 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
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 much a school focuses on petroleum engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of petroleum engineering students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 petroleum 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 petroleum engineering related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for petroleum 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 Petroleum Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region 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 Petroleum Engineering in the Plains States Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering.
Top Plains States Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Petroleum Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology is a good option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering. Missouri University of Science and Technology is a moderately-sized public university located in the remote town of Rolla.
After graduating, petroleum engineering bachelor's recipients usually make about $80,601 in the first five years of their career.
University of North Dakota is a great option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering. Located in the small city of Grand Forks, UND is a public university with a large student population.
Those petroleum engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from University of North Dakota receive $5,481 more than the typical petroleum engineering student.
University of Kansas is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering. KU is a very large public university located in the city of Lawrence.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the petroleum engineering program make an average of $71,179 in the first couple years of working.
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.
college factual
The petroleum engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality petroleum engineering program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
