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 12 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Systems Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 705 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
Your choice of systems engineering for getting your bachelor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to systems engineering students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other systems engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 systems engineering students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 systems engineering related body.
Our full 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 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 a good option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in systems engineering. Located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the systems engineering degree program at University of Virginia - Main Campus earn $15,985 above the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in systems engineering has to check out University of Florida. Located in the city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the systems engineering degree program at University of Florida get $10,505 above the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Washington University in St Louis is a great option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in systems engineering. Located in the suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Systems Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Washington University in St Louis receive an earnings boost of around $8,681 above the average earnings of systems engineering graduates.
Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Systems Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign receive an earnings boost of around $6,592 above the average earnings of systems engineering graduates.
GMU is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Fairfax.
Those systems engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from George Mason University earn $9,749 more than the average systems engineering graduate.
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).
Your choice of systems engineering for getting your bachelor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
