a master's degree in civil engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #40 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual reviewed 137 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of civil engineering. Combined, these schools handed out 4,960 master's degrees in civil engineering to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Civil Engineering School for Your Master's Degree
The civil eng master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality civil eng program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to civil engineering students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other civil engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 civil 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 civil engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for civil engineering students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Civil Engineering in the United States
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for civil engineering students seeking a a master's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Stanford University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in civil engineering. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from Stanford University earn a boost of about $3,641 over the typical income of civil engineering majors.
It is difficult to beat Massachusetts Institute of Technology if you want to pursue a master's degree in civil engineering. MIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.
Those civil engineering students who get their master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology make $8,706 more than the standard civil eng graduate.
Columbia University in the City of New York is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in civil engineering. Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from Columbia University in the City of New York get an earnings boost of around $8,099 above the average income of civil engineering graduates.
Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those civil engineering students who get their master's degree from University of Southern California make $10,926 more than the standard civil eng student.
UW Seattle is a fairly large public university located in the city of Seattle.
Master's recipients from the civil engineering program at University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $7,363 more than the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
UC Davis is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Davis.
Those civil engineering students who get their master's degree from University of California - Davis earn $6,810 more than the average civil eng student.
NJIT is a fairly large public school located in the city of Newark.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from New Jersey Institute of Technology receive an earnings boost of approximately $9,601 above the typical earnings of civil engineering graduates.
Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from University of California - San Diego receive an earnings boost of approximately $9,444 over the average income of civil engineering majors.
NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.
Master's recipients from the civil engineering degree program at New York University make $11,561 more than the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Boston, Northeastern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from Northeastern University get an earnings boost of approximately $3,492 above the average earnings of civil engineering majors.
Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the civil engineering program at North Carolina State University make $8,824 above the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Hoboken, Stevens is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.
Those civil engineering students who get their master's degree from Stevens Institute of Technology receive $2,645 more than the standard civil eng grad.
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Honorable Mentions
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Civil 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).