a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #51 out of 363 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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 12 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for chemical engineering students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 685 bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Chemical Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The chem eng bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 chemical engineering students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other chemical 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 chemical 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 chemical engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for chemical engineering students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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.
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University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Located in the large city of Minneapolis, UMN Twin Cities is a public university with a very large student population.
After graduating, chem eng bachelor's recipients usually make about $73,245 at the beginning of their careers.
Iowa State University is a good choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Located in the small city of Ames, Iowa State is a public university with a very large student population.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Iowa State University receive an earnings boost of around $3,109 over the typical earnings of chemical engineering majors.
Missouri University of Science and Technology is a wonderful option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Missouri University of Science and Technology is a medium-sized public university located in the remote town of Rolla.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering program at Missouri University of Science and Technology get $5,294 more than the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering has to take a look at Washington University in St Louis. Located in the large suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Soon after graduation, chem eng bachelor's recipients generally make about $69,801 in the first five years of their career.
K -State is a large public university located in the city of Manhattan.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Kansas State University receive an earnings boost of about $4,417 above the average earnings of chemical engineering majors.
Iowa is a very large public university located in the small city of Iowa City.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Iowa earn a boost of about $2,265 over the typical earnings of chemical engineering majors.
UNL is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Lincoln.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Nebraska - Lincoln get an earnings boost of approximately $6,528 above the typical earnings of chemical engineering graduates.
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).
The chem eng bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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:
