Petroleum Engineering isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #174 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
College Factual looked at 18 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Petroleum Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 627 bachelor's degrees in petroleum engineering during the <nil> academic year.
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Choosing a Great Petroleum Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The petroleum engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality petroleum 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 petroleum engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of petroleum 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 easy is it for petroleum 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 petroleum engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for petroleum engineering students working on their bachelor's degree.
The petroleum 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 Petroleum Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools.
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.
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Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering needs to take a look at Texas A&M University - College Station. Located in the midsize city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a very large student population.
Petroleum Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Texas A&M University - College Station get an earnings boost of around $4,355 over the typical earnings of petroleum engineering majors.
It is difficult to beat The University of Texas at Austin if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering. Located in the large city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those petroleum engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin earn $21,513 more than the typical petroleum engineering student.
It is hard to beat Colorado School of Mines if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering. Located in the large suburb of Golden, Mines is a public school with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the petroleum engineering degree program at Colorado School of Mines earn $12,152 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering has to look into Texas Tech University. Texas Tech is a very large public university located in the city of Lubbock.
Petroleum Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Texas Tech University earn a boost of around $15,212 over the average earnings of petroleum engineering majors.
Missouri University of Science and Technology is a medium-sized public university located in the town of Rolla.
Bachelor's recipients from the petroleum engineering major at Missouri University of Science and Technology make $4,422 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Morgantown, WVU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Petroleum Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from West Virginia University earn a boost of approximately $3,665 over the average earnings of petroleum engineering graduates.
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.
The petroleum engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality petroleum 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:
