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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 13 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for civil engineering students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 647 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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools 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 Southwest Region.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in civil engineering has to look into The University of Texas at Austin. Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those civil engineering students who get their master's degree from The University of Texas at Austin earn $9,340 more than the typical civil eng student.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in civil engineering has to take a look at Texas A&M University - College Station. Located in the medium-sized city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the civil engineering program at Texas A&M University - College Station get $2,064 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Arizona State University - Tempe is a good option for individuals interested in a master's degree in civil engineering. ASU - Tempe is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Tempe.
After graduating, civil eng master's recipients typically make about $73,696 at the beginning of their careers.
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus is a good decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in civil engineering. Located in the suburb of Norman, University of Oklahoma is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, civil eng master's recipients usually make an average of $67,151 in their early careers.
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:
