If you’re thinking of studying engineering in the United States, you might be wondering which top engineering schools are the best-regarded in your preferred branch of engineering. The QS World University Rankings by Subject currently covers five different types of engineering, with top universities in the US making a strong appearance in each.
Read on for a quick look at the US’s top engineering schools in each field…
Chemical engineering
US universities make up around a quarter (53) of the 200 universities featured in the latest chemical engineering ranking. Of these 53 US entries, 17 are ranked within the top 50 worldwide for chemical engineering. Of the top 10 below, Georgia Institute of Technology made the biggest improvement from the previous year’s position, climbing from joint 29th to 21st.
The top engineering schools in the US for chemical engineering are:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Princeton University
University of Minnesota
University of Texas at Austin
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
Yale University
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Cornell University
Northwestern University
Purdue University
University of Pennsylvania
University of Michigan
University of Delaware
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Johns Hopkins University
Civil & structural engineering
There are 37 top universities in the US featured in the civil engineering ranking, with MIT again the overall world leader. Several US universities improved their position for this subject in the latest ranking, including Stanford University (8th to joint 5th) and the University of Michigan (42nd to joint 34th), whileTexas claims two universities in the US top 10:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
Stanford University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Texas at Austin
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
Purdue University
University of Michigan
Texas A&M University
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Princeton University
Northwestern University
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Pennsylvania State University
University of California, Davis
University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
University of Colorado Boulder
Electrical engineering
The US boasts 57 representatives out of 300 in the electrical engineering ranking, with the top three below also the top three in the world. UCLA gets its strongest rank for an engineering subject in this field, having climbed from 12th to 5th in the world for electrical engineering this year.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Harvard University
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Michigan
Princeton University
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Texas at Austin
University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
Columbia University
Cornell University
Purdue University
The Ohio State University
Texas A&M University
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
University of Pennsylvania
Mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturingengineering
The latest mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering ranking sees 61 top universities in the US feature among the world’s top 300 schools for this subject area, again led by MIT (which has also been also been ranked 1st in the overall QS World University Rankings® five times in a row). The University of Michigan gets its highest score for an engineering subject in this field, at 6th in the world.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
University of Michigan
Harvard University
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Purdue University
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Northwestern University
Cornell University
Princeton University
University of Texas at Austin
Texas A&M University
Pennsylvania State University
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Duke University
Mineral & mining engineering
Of the 100 mining engineering schools featured in this ranking – published for the first time in 2016 – almost a quarter (24) are in the US. The mineral and mining engineering ranking sees Colorado School of Mines beat MIT as the world’s leading institution for this branch of engineering. Colorado School of Mines specializes in engineering and applied science, “with special expertise in the development and stewardship of the Earth’s natural resources”.
Colorado School of Mines
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
University of Texas at Austin
Texas A&M University
Pennsylvania State University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Columbia University
University of Utah
The University of Arizona
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Arizona State University
Cornell University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Purdue University
Rice University
