Mechanical Engineering is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #29 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 26 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of mechanical engineering. Combined, these schools handed out 1,307 master's degrees in mechanical engineering to qualified students.
DEBUG: No relevant offers, showing generic ESYOH widget
Choosing a Great Mechanical Engineering School for Your Master's Degree
The me master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality me 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 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 many resources a school devotes to mechanical engineering students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other mechanical engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 mechanical 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 mechanical engineering related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for mechanical engineering students working on their master's degree.
The me 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 Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "engineering//me-mechanical-engineering"
It is difficult to beat Purdue University - Main Campus if you wish to pursue a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Purdue is a very large public university located in the small city of West Lafayette.
Mechanical Engineering master's degree recipients from Purdue University - Main Campus earn a boost of approximately $12,923 above the average earnings of mechanical engineering majors.
It is difficult to beat University of Michigan - Ann Arbor if you want to pursue a master's degree in mechanical engineering. U-M is a fairly large public university located in the city of Ann Arbor.
Students who graduate with their master's from the me program state that they receive average early career earnings of $93,716.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in mechanical engineering needs to look into Northwestern University. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the me program make an average of $83,978 in the first couple years of working.
University of Wisconsin - Madison is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the large city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the me program state that they receive average early career wages of $88,820.
Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their master's degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $12,734 more than the standard me student.
Ohio State is a very large public university located in the city of Columbus.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their master's degree from Ohio State University - Main Campus earn $5,294 more than the typical me student.
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 me master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality me program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
