If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in general engineering, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #116 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 8 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 801 bachelor's degrees in general engineering to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality engineering 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 bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host 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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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 general engineering students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 general engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general engineering students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in general engineering needs to check out North Carolina State University. Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population.
Those general engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University earn $3,345 more than the standard engineering grad.
It's difficult to beat James Madison University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in general engineering. Located in the city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those general engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from James Madison University make $2,752 more than the average engineering grad.
Mercer University is a good decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in general engineering. Mercer is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Macon.
Bachelor's recipients from the general engineering degree program at Mercer University get $3,979 more than the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It is hard to beat McNeese State University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in general engineering. Located in the small city of Lake Charles, McNeese is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Those general engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from McNeese State University make $7,142 more than the average engineering graduate.
UNCA is a small public university located in the city of Asheville.
General Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of North Carolina at Asheville get an earnings boost of approximately $4,986 above the average income of general engineering majors.
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).
The engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality engineering program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
