a master's degree in materials engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #108 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Materials Engineering Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 130 master's degrees in materials engineering to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Materials Engineering School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of materials 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 materials engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of materials 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 easy is it for materials 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 materials engineering related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for materials 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 Materials Engineering Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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It is hard to beat Arizona State University - Tempe if you want to pursue a master's degree in materials engineering. ASU - Tempe is a fairly large public university located in the city of Tempe.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the materials engineering program earn around $108,956 for their early career.
Arizona State University - Skysong is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in materials engineering. Located in the medium-sized city of Scottsdale, ASU - Skysong is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the materials engineering program earn around $108,956 in their early career salary.
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of materials 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:
