2025 Best Environmental Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in environmental engineering, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #136 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual looked at 10 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Environmental Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 286 bachelor's degrees in environmental engineering during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Environmental Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree

The environmental engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality environmental engineering program can vary widely even among the top schools. 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 much a school focuses on environmental engineering students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of environmental engineering students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 environmental 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 environmental engineering related body.

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

More Ways to Rank Environmental Engineering Schools

The environmental engineering 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 Environmental Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.

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.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Environmental Engineering in the Great Lakes Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering.

10 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Environmental Engineering

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

15 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat Northwestern University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Northwestern University

2

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

25 Annual Graduates

$57,824 Median Starting Salary

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering. U-M is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the environmental engineering program make around $57,824 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

3

Purdue University - Main Campus
West Lafayette, IN

62 Annual Graduates

$71,861 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat Purdue University - Main Campus if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering. Purdue is a very large public university located in the small city of West Lafayette.

Environmental Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Purdue University - Main Campus earn a boost of approximately $5,821 above the average income of environmental engineering majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Purdue University - Main Campus

4

University of Cincinnati - Main Campus
Cincinnati, OH

28 Annual Graduates

University of Cincinnati - Main Campus is a good decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering. UC is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Cincinnati.More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from University of Cincinnati - Main Campus

5

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN

13 Annual Graduates

$64,675 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.

Soon after graduation, environmental engineering bachelor's recipients generally earn about $64,675 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from University of Notre Dame

6

Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI

29 Annual Graduates

$64,453 Median Starting Salary

Located in the town of Houghton, Michigan Tech is a public university with a medium-sized student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the environmental engineering program make about $64,453 for their early career.

More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University

7

Ohio State University - Main Campus
Columbus, OH

37 Annual Graduates

$67,938 Median Starting Salary

Ohio State is a very large public university located in the large city of Columbus.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the environmental engineering program state that they receive average early career income of $67,938.

More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Ohio State University - Main Campus

8

Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI

12 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Milwaukee, Marquette is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Marquette University

9

University of Wisconsin - Platteville
Platteville, WI

19 Annual Graduates

$69,490 Median Starting Salary

UW - Platteville is a medium-sized public university located in the town of Platteville.

Those environmental engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Wisconsin - Platteville earn $3,450 more than the standard environmental engineering grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from University of Wisconsin - Platteville

10

Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL

12 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Loyola University Chicago

Best Environmental Engineering Colleges by State

Explore the best environmental engineering colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	261	70
Ohio	252	78
Illinois	241	20
Indiana	235	68
Wisconsin	213	36

View All Rankings >

Environmental Engineering Related Rankings by Major

Environmental Engineering is one of 41 different types of Engineering programs to choose from.

Environmental Engineering Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Environmental Engineering	286

Majors Similar to Environmental Engineering

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering	5,763
Computer Engineering	2,681
Electrical Engineering	2,646
Civil Engineering	1,943
Chemical Engineering	1,670
Biomedical Engineering	1,409
Industrial Engineering	1,120
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	877
General Engineering	467
Materials Engineering	368

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 U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Alesia Goosic. More about our data sources and methodologies.