Systems 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 #179 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 5 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Systems Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 288 bachelor's degrees in systems engineering to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Engineering Management (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Engineering Management (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MBA - Engineering Management (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MBA - Engineering Management (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 2
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 2 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 2
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 2 offers with relevance >= 0.8
Choosing a Great Systems Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The systems engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality systems engineering program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good 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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on systems engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of systems engineering students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 systems 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 systems engineering related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for systems 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 Systems 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 our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "engineering//systems-engineering"
University of Virginia - Main Campus is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in systems engineering. University of Virginia is a very large public university located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville.
Bachelor's recipients from the systems engineering major at University of Virginia - Main Campus earn $12,805 above the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
University of Florida is a great option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in systems engineering. UF is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Gainesville.
Systems Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Florida receive an earnings boost of approximately $7,325 above the typical earnings of systems engineering graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in systems engineering needs to check out George Mason University. Located in the large suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population.
Systems Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from George Mason University receive an earnings boost of about $6,569 over the typical earnings of systems engineering graduates.
Kennesaw State University is a great option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in systems engineering. KSU Georgia is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Kennesaw.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the systems engineering program make an average of $62,015 in the first couple years of working.
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 systems engineering bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality systems engineering program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
