a master's degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #74 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 46 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Master's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,402 master's degrees in aerospace & aeronautical engineering to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of aerospace & aeronautical engineering for getting your master'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 for a Master's Degree 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 master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other aerospace & aeronautical engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 easy is it for aerospace & aeronautical engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized aerospace & aeronautical engineering related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for aerospace & aeronautical engineering students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Master's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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University of Southern California is a good option for individuals interested in a master's degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Those aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who get their master's degree from University of Southern California make $10,667 more than the average aerospace engineering student.
It's hard to beat Stanford University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. Stanford is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford.
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering master's degree recipients from Stanford University earn a boost of about $10,284 above the average income of aerospace & aeronautical engineering graduates.
Johns Hopkins University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. Johns Hopkins is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Baltimore.
Those aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who get their master's degree from Johns Hopkins University make $26,854 more than the average aerospace engineering grad.
U-M is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor.
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering master's degree recipients from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor receive an earnings boost of around $6,547 over the average income of aerospace & aeronautical engineering graduates.
Located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a public school with a fairly large student population.
Those aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who get their master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus make $2,402 more than the standard aerospace engineering graduate.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering master's degree recipients from University of California - Los Angeles receive an earnings boost of around $7,796 above the average earnings of aerospace & aeronautical engineering majors.
Purdue is a fairly large public university located in the small city of West Lafayette.
Master's recipients from the aerospace & aeronautical engineering program at Purdue University - Main Campus earn $2,853 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering students that almost earned our Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Master's Degree Schools 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).