2025 Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California

If you pursue a doctor's degree in civil engineering, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #29 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 5 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 135 doctor's degrees in civil engineering during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Civil Engineering School for Your Doctor's Degree

The civil eng doctor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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 civil engineering students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of civil engineering students who choose to seek a doctor'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 civil engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized civil engineering related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Civil Engineering Schools

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 Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Civil Engineering in California

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in civil engineering.

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Civil Eng

1

Stanford University
Stanford, CA

23 Annual Graduates

Stanford University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in civil engineering. Stanford is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Stanford.More information about a doctorate in civil engineering from Stanford University

2

University of California - Davis
Davis, CA

33 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in civil engineering has to take a look at University of California - Davis. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in civil engineering from University of California - Davis

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

36 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is a great decision for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in civil engineering. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the city of Berkeley.More information about a doctorate in civil engineering from University of California - Berkeley

4

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

14 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat University of California - Los Angeles if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in civil engineering. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in civil engineering from University of California - Los Angeles

5

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

14 Annual Graduates

UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the city of Irvine.More information about a doctorate in civil engineering from University of California - Irvine

Best Civil Engineering Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Civil Engineering Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	122	31
Oregon	107	21
Nevada	84	15
Hawaii	53	4

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Civil Eng

One of 41 majors within the Engineering area of study, Civil Engineering has other similar majors worth exploring.

Civil Eng Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Civil Engineering	117
Structural Engineering	9
Civil Engineering	5
Trasportation Engineering	4

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering	350
Mechanical Engineering	219
Biomedical Engineering	193
Chemical Engineering	138
Materials Engineering	105
Computer Engineering	50
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	43
Other Engineering	39
Systems Engineering	16
Environmental Engineering	13

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Master Sgt. Roger Parsons. More about our data sources and methodologies.