Civil Engineering is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #40 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 24 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,260 master's degrees in civil engineering during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Civil Engineering School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of civil 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 civil engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of civil engineering students who choose to seek a master'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 much debt civil engineering students go into to obtain their master'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 civil engineering related body.
Our complete 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.
The civil eng school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region.
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Stanford University is a great choice for students interested in a master's degree in civil engineering. Stanford is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Stanford.
Students who graduate with their master's from the civil eng program state that they receive average early career income of $83,740.
University of Southern California is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in civil engineering. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Those civil engineering students who get their master's degree from University of Southern California make $6,283 more than the average civil eng graduate.
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in civil engineering has to take a look at University of Washington - Seattle Campus. Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from University of Washington - Seattle Campus earn a boost of about $2,720 over the typical earnings of civil engineering graduates.
University of California - Davis is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in civil engineering. Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a very large student population.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from University of California - Davis get an earnings boost of about $2,167 above the typical earnings of civil engineering majors.
UCSD is a very large public university located in the large city of La Jolla.
Civil Engineering master's degree recipients from University of California - San Diego get an earnings boost of approximately $4,801 above the typical income of civil 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).
Your choice of civil 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:
