Ranked #29 in popularity, mechanical engineering is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 26 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,108 master's degrees in mechanical engineering to qualified students.
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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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools 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 Southeast Region.
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Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus is a wonderful option for individuals pursuing a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the large city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a public school with a fairly large student population.
Those mechanical engineering students who get their master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus earn $10,334 more than the average me graduate.
University of Florida is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the midsize city of Gainesville, UF 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 income of $85,272.
It's hard to beat Virginia Tech if you want to pursue a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the small city of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech is a public school with a very large student population.
Soon after graduating, me master's recipients generally earn about $83,163 in the first five years of their career.
Auburn is a very large public university located in the small city of Auburn.
Master's recipients from the mechanical engineering degree program at Auburn University get $7,198 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
NC State is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Raleigh.
Master's recipients from the mechanical engineering major at North Carolina State University make $7,804 more than the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).