stanford phd in civil engineering

CEE-PHD - Civil and Environmental Engineering (PhD)

Program overview.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Stanford conducts fundamental and applied research to advance the civil and environmental engineering professions, educate future academic and industry leaders, and prepare students for careers in professional practice. Civil and environmental engineers work to protect and sustain the natural environment while creating and maintaining a resilient, sustainably built environment. Civil and environmental engineers are essential to providing the necessities of human life, including water, air, shelter, infrastructure, and energy, in increasingly more efficient and renewable ways.

Research and teaching in the department focus on the theme of engineering for sustainability, including three core areas: built environment, environmental and water studies, and atmosphere/energy. In sustainably produced environments, the focus is on processes, techniques, materials, and monitoring technologies for planning, designing, constructing, and operating environmentally sensitive, economically efficient, performance-based buildings and infrastructure and managing associated risks from natural and artificial hazards. Environmental and water studies focus on creating plans, policies, science-based assessment models, and engineered systems to manage water in ways that protect human health, promote human welfare, and provide freshwater and coastal ecosystem services. In the atmosphere/energy area, research and teaching focus on fundamental energy and atmospheric engineering and science, assessment of energy-use effects on atmospheric processes and air quality, and analysis and design of energy-efficient generation and use systems with minimal environmental impact.

Free Form Requisites

The PhD program requires a total of 135 units of graduate study, at least 90 units of which must be at Stanford. Up to 45 units of graduate study can be represented by the MS program described above. Additionally, up to 45 units of graduate study can be represented by the Engineer (ENG) program as described above if both the MS and ENG units were all completed at Stanford. Students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 in post-M.S. coursework. All candidates for the PhD degree are required to complete CEE 200 in conjunction with a one-quarter teaching assistantship/course assistantship to gain training and instructional experience. The department Graduate Handbook contains further information on PhD requirements and regulations.

The program of study is arranged via consultation between the prospective candidate and their dissertation research advisor. This program of study considers the interests of the student and the background needed for their thesis topic within the framework of the requirements of the department and the university.

By the end of a student’s sixth quarter as an enrolled PhD student, excluding summers, the student is expected to pass both parts of the department’s General Qualifying Examination (GQE) to be admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree. The GQE aims to ensure that the student is adequately prepared to undertake doctoral research and has a well-planned research topic. The exam includes (1) a written and/or oral general examination of the candidate’s doctoral major field, (2) a presentation and defense of the candidate’s doctoral research dissertation proposal, or (3) a combination research proposal and general examination. The GQE is administered by an advisory committee consisting of at least three Stanford faculty members, including a chair who is a faculty member in Civil and Environmental Engineering and the student’s doctoral advisor. When the primary advisor is not a member of the CEE faculty (CEE-Academic Council), there must be a CEE faculty (CEE-Academic Council) co-adviser, and the committee will consist of four examiners, with a minimum of two members who are Academic Council in the CEE department. All members are generally on the Stanford Academic Council. A petition for the appointment of one advisory committee member not on the Academic Council may be made if the proposed person contributes an area of expertise that is not readily available from the faculty. Such petitions are subject to approval by the department chair. When the primary research advisor is not a member of the CEE Academic Council faculty, there must be a CEE faculty (CEE-Academic Council) co-adviser, and the committee will consist of four examiners, with a minimum of two members who are Academic Council faculty in the CEE department.

MS Programs

Main navigation, ms programs in cee.

Our Master of Science (MS) programs are terminal degree programs for those seeking advanced knowledge in a focused discipline of civil and environmental engineering to pursue a career in industry or another professional degree. The MS degree is a coursework-based degree. No research or thesis are required. However, in most programs students may elect to conduct independent research for course credit if they wish. Our Master’s degrees are offered under the general regulations of the university as set forth in the Stanford Bulletin .

The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering offers Master’s degrees in five areas of specialization as shown below. There are many fundamental skills and bodies of knowledge that are foundation to all areas of specialization in a modern CEE graduate education and these cross-cutting courses are accessible to students in any program.

(1) Atmosphere/Energy

Stanford University’s Atmosphere/Energy MS degree program bridges the gap between the two key disciplines of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This program aims to mitigate atmospheric problems by increasing the efficiency with which energy is used‚ optimize the use of natural energy resources and understand the effects of energy technologies on the atmosphere.

(2) Environmental Engineering

The Environmental Engineering MS degree program emphasizes the application of fundamental principles to analyze complex environmental problems and to devise effective solutions. With this education, graduates of our program are able to deal effectively with new environmental problems as they emerge and meet the challenges created globally by increasing urbanization, population growth and ecological degradation.

(3) Structural Engineering & Mechanics and Computation

Previously called Structural Engineering & Geomechanics; there are no changes to academic requirements for current students already admitted to Structural Engineering & Geomechanics. The Structural Engineering and Mechanics and Computation MS degree programs offers courses in a broad range of areas related to structural analysis and design, geomechanics, engineering informatics, hazard risk and reliability, structural mechanics and materials, and structural sensing, monitoring and data analytics for the built environment.

(4) Sustainable Design & Construction

The Sustainable Design and Construction MS degree program prepares students for careers in the built environment: designing, building, and managing sustainable buildings and infrastructure to maximize their lifecycle economic value as well as their net contribution to environmental and social functions and services.

(5) Sustainable Engineered Systems

The Sustainable Engineered Systems MS degree program, available exclusively in a hybrid online/on-campus format, is designed for students who want to gain advanced knowledge of the sustainability of civil and environmental engineering systems and data science along with a specialization in structural and material systems, sustainable construction systems, environmental engineering systems, or atmospheric and energy systems.

Cross-Cutting Curricula

Cross-cutting curricula are accessible to students in any program. The CEE MS Cross Cutting Course List covers both fundamental skills and bodies of knowledge foundational to modern CEE graduate education. The four areas are 1) Probability, statistics, & data analysis for infrastructure analysis; 2) Public policy, decision analysis, & economics of infrastructure systems; 3) Ethics, equity, and environmental justice in the built and natural environments; and 4) Scientific computing and numerical methods.  The current course offerings in each area are summarized below.  While some courses will be more relevant to students of specific programs than others, we hope this list is valuable as you select classes.

Civil Engineering

Main navigation, 2023-24 civil engineering ug degree programs (ce-bs, bas, bash, bsh, secondary, minor).

— ABET ACCREDITATION CRITERIA APPLY —

Civil engineers plan, design, construct and sustain the built environment including buildings and bridges, energy and water systems, and coasts and waterways.  Civil engineers work to protect society from natural catastrophes and risks, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and sea-level rise, as well as help to manage our natural resources

As their work is crucial to the day-to-day lives of most people, civil engineers bear an important responsibility to the public. The civil engineering field is both technical and people-oriented, requiring excellent communication skills and an ability to manage both people and multi-faceted projects. Students in the major learn to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and the primary areas of civil engineering to conduct experiments, design systems to solve engineering problems, and communicate their ideas effectively to the scientific community.

UG Director : Greg Deierlein, [email protected] Student Services : Jill Filice, 316 Y2E2,  [email protected] Departmental Chair : Sarah Billington, 313 Y2E2, [email protected]

For instructions on how to declare the Civil Engineering major,  jump to the bottom of this page .

Objectives and Outcomes for Civil Engineering

Objectives: Graduates of the civil engineering program are expected within a few years of graduation to have the ability to:

• Establish themselves as practicing professionals in civil engineering or a related field
• Pursue graduate study in civil engineering or other fields
• Work effectively as responsible professionals independently or in teams handling increasingly complex professional and societal expectations
• an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
• an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
• an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
• an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
• an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
• an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze, and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
• an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Planning Sheets

CE Program Sheets

CE Flowchart

CE 4-Year Plans

CE 4-Year Plans for Going Abroad

The Curriculum

The undergraduate civil engineering curriculum includes a core to be taken by all declared majors that provides a broad introduction to the major areas of civil engineering. Subsequent coursework is grouped into 7 focus areas, allowing students to tailor their studies to align with their interests. Undergraduates potentially interested in the Civil Engineering major should also consider the Environmental Systems Engineering major as a possible alternative; a comparison of these two alternative majors is presented in the  Environmental Systems Engineering  page.

For more information on civil engineering, students are encouraged to visit the  CEE website , talk to a CEE faculty member, or contact the CEE Student Services Specialist, Jill Filice, in room 316 of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment & Energy (Y2E2) Building.

Research Experience for Undergraduates

The department of Civil and Environmental Engineering welcomes student participation in the VPUE Undergraduate Research Programs. Interested students should check the  VPUE  website and the  CEE  website for announcements regarding the application procedures. Annual program announcements appear in January with application due dates in February.

Exploring Civil Engineering as a Major

Are you wondering whether a Civil Engineering major is for you? If so, here are some courses accessible early in your undergraduate career that will help you explore your interest in our major. If you end up joining our program, this early start on fulfilling requirements will pay off by giving you more flexibility in class scheduling for your junior and senior years.

1-The following electives are accessible to frosh/sophomores, and can count towards the major:

CEE 41Q: Clean Water Now! Urban Water Conflicts  (3, W; Soph Introsem) CEE 63: Weather and Storms (3 units, A)

CEE 64: Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science & Solutions (3 units, W)

CEE 80N: Engineering the Built Environment: Intro to Structural Engr (3, A; Freshman Introsem) CEE 83: Seismic Design Workshop (A)

CEE 107A: Understanding Energy (3 units, A, S)  (or CEE107S, 3 units, Sum) CEE 120A: Building Modeling for Design and Construction (3 units, A, Sum) CEE 131C: How Buildings Are Made: Materiality and Construction Methods (4 units, S) CEE 162F: Coastal Processes (prereq: PHYSICS 41) (3 units, W)

2-For an introduction to Civil Engineering, classes required for all of our declared majors that are readily accessible to you are

Requirements: Civil Engineering Major

Mathematics and science (45 units minimum).

*Approved as science classes only for the CE major.

‡ Required for depth focus in Structural Engineering and Mechanics, Construction Engineering, Urban Systems, Energy and Climate, or Sensing, Analytics, and Control

‡vRequired for depth focus in Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology or Environmental Quality Engineering

Technology in Society (this course required):

CEE 102A Legal/Ethical Principles in Design, Construction, and Project Delivery, 3 units, W

Engineering Fundamentals (2 Courses minimum)

• ENGR 14 Introduction to Solid Mechanics 3 units, A, W, S
• ENGR 90 Environmental Science and Technology (same as CEE 70) 3 units, W

Engineering Depth

At least 68 units of Fundamental + Depth courses are required by ABET and by the Department.

Required Core Courses (17-19 units)

Focus area electives (at least 30 units).

(1) To satisfy ABET criteria, students MUST choose at least TWO of the following 4 classes: CEE 101A, 101B, 101C, and 101D. CEE 101A, 101B, and/or 101C will count as Focus Area Electives. CEE 101D may count either as a Focus Area Elective, or as a Required Core Course (replacing CS 106A).

(2) Students must take at least 12 units in one focus area as their depth area.  Students must also take at least 6 units each in 3 other  focus areas for breadth. Courses cannot double-count. 

Classes important for professional licensing are marked with *; classes needed as preparation for coterm studies in CEE are marked with a # – see bottom of next page for more details.

Structural Engineering & Mechanics Focus

Environmental fluid mechanics and hydrology focus, construction engineering focus, energy and climate focus, environmental quality engineering focus, sensing, analytics, and control focus, urban systems focus.

* The first step towards professional licensing is the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam. To prepare for a career as a practicing civil or environmental engineer, your elective choices should prepare you for at least one of these choices of FE exam:

Civil FE: CEE 101A, 101C, 180, 182 Environmental FE: CEE 101B, 166B, 172, 174B, 177 (or 170). General FE: Physics 43, CEE 101A, 101B; ENGR 15 (which may count under Other Electives)

# If you are aiming to apply to a CEE coterm program, your elective choices should include, at minimum: Atmosphere/Energy: CEE 64, 107A Environmental Engineering: CEE 101B, 177 (or 170) Structural Engineering & Mechanics: CEE 101A, 101C, 180, 182 SDC (Sustainable Design & Construction) – Energy: CEE 120A, 156, 176A SDC – Management or SDC – Structures: CEE 101A, 101C, 180 SDC – Urban Systems:  CEE 120A, 141A, 155

OTHER ENGINEERING ELECTIVE COURSES (up to 15 UNITS)

Students must take at least 68 units of engineering science and design courses (Engineering Fundamentals + Core + Electives) in order to satisfy ABET and departmental requirements to graduate.  For the remaining engineering elective units: (1) Additional electives may be selected from the 7 focus areas listed above.  (2) The following additional Engineering Fundamental courses may count: ENGR 10, 15, 21, 25E, 40M (or 40A), and 50 (or 50E or 50M). (3) Students may also count up to 4 units of CEE199/199L in this category, and the following introductory CEE classes: CEE 41Q, CEE 80N, and CEE 83.  (4) Students seeking to count an engineering elective course not covered in (1), (2) or (3) must petition the CEE Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, requesting confirmation that the course will satisfy ABET requirements, (by emailing [email protected] ).  Some CEE courses do not satisfy ABET requirements, for example:  CEE 31, 102W and 151.

Coterm Deadlines and Contact

Instructions for declaring a major in civil engineering.

• Enter your major declaration as Civil Engineering in Axess.
• Download and complete the Excel major  Program Sheet   
• To open a new program sheet, start by choosing the academic year for the major you wish to use (Example: 2020-21 or 2021-22; must be from a year you are matriculated at SU)
• Be sure and list all courses already taken and those you plan to take -- you will have the opportunity to revise this later, so please fill in as many courses as you can and print out.
• Email your Stanford transcript (unofficial is fine) and completed program sheet to Jill Filice, CEE Student Services, [email protected] , and request to have a CEE major faculty advisor assigned to you. You may request a specific advisor if you wish. Office hours are 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. 
• Schedule a Zoom meeting with your CEE major faculty adviser and email them your program sheet and unofficial transcript so that you may both review your course study plan, and so that they may approve/sign off on your program sheet.
• Email your signed program sheet to Jill Filice ( [email protected] ), who upon receiving your signed sheet will approve your major declaration in Axess.
• You are encouraged to meet with your CEE undergraduate adviser at least once a quarter to review your academic progress. Changes to your program sheet can be made by printing out a revised sheet, obtaining your undergraduate adviser’s signature, and returning the approved sheet to the CEE Student Services Office. NOTE: Be sure to revise your program sheet, print, and have signed by your advisor during your senior year and at least one quarter prior to graduation.
• Other Information:
• Procedures for requesting transfer credits and program deviations are described in detail in  Petitions . The online forms may be filled out electronically. If you are requesting transfer credits or program deviations, you should bring your completed petition form with your transcript to the CEE Student Services office. Attach your program sheet on file in CEE.
• Check with the CEE Student Services Office to make sure that you are on the CEE undergraduate student email list for important announcements about department events and activities.

• View Stanford-only Results

School of Engineering

Showing 141-150 of 466 results.

Barbara Jean Gunderson

Administrative associate, civil and environmental engineering.

• 473 VIA ORTEGA
• 2nd floor, room 242
• STANFORD, California 94305
• (650) 736-4864 (office)
• Other Names: Barbie Gunderson Barb Gunderson

Parul Gupta

Msx fellow, expected graduation 2024 research asst, center for sustainable development and global competitiveness casual - non-exempt, graduate school of business - center for entrepreneurial studies.

• Contact Info Mail Code: 4895 [email protected]

Konane Moana Gurfield

Masters student in civil and environmental engineering, admitted autumn 2023.

• Contact Info [email protected]

Matias Gutierrez

• Contact Info [email protected]

Racquel Hagen

Blume center administrator, civil and environmental engineering.

• Blume Earthquake Engineering Center
• 439 Panama Mall
• BLDG 540 RM 118
• Stanford, California 94305
• (650) 723-4150 (office)

Jenny Hamilton

Ph.d. student in civil and environmental engineering, admitted autumn 2019.

• Contact Info Mail Code: 4020

Allisa Hastie

Ph.d. student in civil and environmental engineering, admitted autumn 2022.

• Contact Info [email protected]

Kenneth Dean Hayes

Adjunct lecturer, architectural design program.

• Contact Info Mail Code: 4020 [email protected]

Tess Hegarty

Ph.d. student in civil and environmental engineering, admitted spring 2018.

Bio Tess Hegarty is currently a PhD candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, and she’s passionate about building decarbonization as a part of addressing the climate crisis. Her PhD thesis research explores the intersection of probabilistic life cycle assessment (LCA) metrics and industrialized construction through ongoing collaborations between industry and academia.  Her undergraduate degree focused on structures, architecture, and design via MIT's flexible 1-ENG program, and she spent her junior year studying abroad at the University of Cambridge. Directly after graduating from MIT, she started her MS/PhD at Stanford, with fellowship support from the NSF GRFP and SGF. While at Stanford, she co-founded a volunteer student organization called Engineering Students for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ES4DEI). She’s also interested in design thinking and has taken four d.school classes while at Stanford, including Designing (Ourselves) for Racial Justice, Transformative Design, Creativity in Research Scholars, and Print on Purpose. She enjoys applying her graphic design skills for Scientists Speak Up, a student organization dedicated to combatting science misinformation.

• Contact Info Mail Code: 4020 [email protected]

Annie Helmes

Course asst-graduate, civil and environmental engineering.

• Contact Info Mail Code: 4020 [email protected]

• Civil and Environmental Engineering

Main navigation

• School of Engineering

This pre-professional program balances the fundamentals common to many specialties in civil engineering and allows for concentration in structures and construction or environmental and water studies.

What You'll Study

The mission of the undergraduate program in Civil Engineering is to provide students with the principles of engineering and the methodologies necessary for civil engineering practice. This pre-professional program balances the fundamentals common to many specialties in civil engineering and allows for concentration in structures and construction or environmental and water studies. Students in the major learn to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and civil engineering to conduct experiments, design structures and systems to creatively solve engineering problems, and communicate their ideas effectively. The curriculum includes course work in structural, construction, and environmental engineering. The major prepares students for careers in consulting, industry and government, as well as for graduate studies in engineering.

Degrees Offered 

More information.

Learn more about Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Stanford Bulletin

• Explore IntroSems related to this major

Exploratory Courses

Cee 107a.

Understand Energy (CEE 207A, EARTHSYS 103)

CEE 107S

Understand Energy - Essentials (CEE 207S)

CEE 130

Architectural Design: 3-D Modeling, Methodology, and Process

CEE 31

Accessing Architecture Through Drawing

CEE 31Q

Cee 32a.

Psychology of Architecture

CEE 32D

Construction: The Writing of Architecture

CEE 32F

Light, Color, and Space

CEE 32R

American Architecture (AMSTUD 143A, ARTHIST 143A, ARTHIST 343A)

CEE 63

Weather and Storms (CEE 263C)

CEE 64

Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions (CEE 263D)

CEE 70

Environmental Science and Technology (ENGR 90)

Environmental Complexity Lab

Civil and environmental engineering stanford university.

Nicholas T. Ouellette Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Stanford University

Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building Room 169 473 Via Ortega Stanford, CA 94305

Tel: (650) 723-4860 Fax: (650) 725-9720 nto -at- stanford.edu

Open Positions

We have no explicit searches at the moment, but we are always interested in excellent graduate students and postdocs. Email nto -at- stanford.edu for more information.

Environmental Complexity Laboratory

Experimental fluid mechanics, collective behavior, self-organization in complex systems.

50 Best Colleges for Civil Engineering – 2024

April 10, 2024

Not an election cycle goes by where we do not hear laments about America’s crumbling infrastructure. The heroes-in-waiting ready to design and oversee the construction of the next generation of bridges, roads, airports, sewage systems, and public buildings are civil engineers. Population growth and the continued deterioration of existing structures and systems means that degree earners in this field will continue to find employment opportunities into the foreseeable future. Graduates of the programs that cracked our list of Best Colleges for Civil Engineering emerge with the requisite skills and credentials needed to launch their careers.

Salary Information

Want to know how much money graduates of the best civil engineering colleges make when they begin their careers? For each college listed (and hundreds of additional schools), you can view the starting salaries for civil engineering majors .

Best Colleges for Civil Engineering

Here’s a quick preview of the first civil engineering institutions that made our list. Detailed profiles including academic-oriented and outcomes-based facts and stats can be found when you scroll below.

1) Princeton University

2) Georgia Institute of Technology

3) University of California-Berkeley

4) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

5) Purdue University-Main Campus

6) Massachusetts Institute of Technology

7) Columbia University

8) Rice University

9) Virginia Tech

10) Texas A & M University-College Station

All of the schools profiled below have stellar reputations in the field of civil engineering and commit substantial resources to undergraduate education. For each of the best civil engineering colleges, College Transitions will provide you with—when available—the university’s:

• Cost of Attendance
• Acceptance Rate
• Median  SAT
• Median  ACT
• Retention Rate
• Graduation Rate

We will also include a longer write-up of each college’s:

• Academic Highlights – Includes facts like student-to-faculty ratio, average class size, number of majors offered, and most popular majors.
• Professional Outcomes – Includes info on the rate of positive outcomes, companies employing alumni, and graduate school acceptances.

Princeton University

• Princeton, NJ

Academic Highlights: 39 majors are available at Princeton. Just under three-quarters of class sections have an enrollment of 19 or fewer students, and 31% have fewer than ten students. Princeton is known for its commitment to undergraduate teaching, and students consistently rate professors as accessible and helpful. The Engineering Department is widely recognized as one of the country’s best, as is the School of Public and International Affairs.

Professional Highlights: Over 95% of a typical Tiger class finds their next destination within six months of graduating. Large numbers of recent grads flock to the fields of business and engineering, health/science, & tech. Companies presently employing hundreds of Tiger alumni include Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, Morgan Stanley, IBM, and Meta. The average salary ranges from $40k (education, health care, or social services) to $100k (computer/mathematical positions). Between 15-20% of graduating Tigers head directly to graduate/professional school.

• Enrollment: 5,604 (undergraduate); 3,238 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $86,700
• Median SAT: 1540
• Median ACT: 35
• Acceptance Rate: 6%
• Retention Rate: 97%
• Graduation Rate: 98%

Georgia Institute of Technology

• Atlanta, GA

Academic Highlights: Georgia Tech’s engineering and computer science programs are at the top of any “best programs” list. Being a large research university, the student-to-faculty ratio is a less-than-ideal 22:1, leading to some larger undergraduate class sections. In fact, 49% of courses had enrollments of more than thirty students in 2022-23. On the other end of the spectrum, 8% of sections had single-digit enrollments. In terms of total number of degrees conferred, the most popular areas of study are engineering (51%), computer science (21%), and business (9%).

Professional Outcomes: More than three-quarters of recent grads had already procured employment by the time they were handed their diplomas. You will find graduates at every major technology company in the world. The median salary reported by that group was $80,000. Many remain on campus to earn advanced engineering degrees through Georgia Tech, but the school’s reputation is such that gaining admission into other top programs including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, Stanford, and Caltech.

• Enrollment: 18,416
• Cost of Attendance: $29,950 (In-State); $52,120 (Out-of-State)
• Median SAT: 1470
• Median ACT: 33
• Acceptance Rate: 17%
• Retention Rate: 98%
• Graduation Rate: 93%

University of California, Berkeley

• Berkeley, CA

Academic Highlights: More than 150 undergraduate majors and minors are available across six schools: the College of Letters and Science, the College of Chemistry, the College of Engineering, the College of Environmental Design, the College of Natural Resources, and the Haas School of Business. Many departments have top international reputations including computer science, engineering, chemistry, English, psychology, and economics. 22% of sections contain nine or fewer students, and over 55% of students assist faculty with a research project or complete a research methods course.

Professional Outcomes: Upon graduating, 49% of Cal’s Class of 2022 had already secured employment, and 20% were headed to graduate school. Business is the most popular sector, attracting 62% of employed grads; next up are industrial (17%), education (8%), and nonprofit work (7%). The median starting salary was $86,459 across all majors. Thousands of alumni can be found in the offices of Google, Apple, and Meta, and 500+ Golden Bears are currently employed by Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft. The school is the number one all-time producer of Peace Corps volunteers.

• Enrollment: 32,831 (undergraduate); 12,914 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $48,574 (in-state); $82,774 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: Test Blind
• Median ACT: Test Blind
• Acceptance Rate: 11%
• Retention Rate: 96%
• Graduation Rate: 94%

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Champaign-Urbana, IL

Academic Highlights: Eight of UIUC’s fifteen schools cater to undergraduate students. There are 150 academic programs offered, including those at the acclaimed Grainger College of Engineering and Gies College of Business. In sheer volume of degrees conferred, engineering and business/marketing are tied at 19%, followed by the social sciences (9%) and psychology (6%). 39% of sections are capped at 19 students. 29% of undergraduates work with a faculty member on a research project; another 22% have some type of fieldwork, practicum, or clinical experience.

Professional Outcomes: 95% of the members of the Class of 2022 landed at their next destination within six months of graduation, with 38% matriculating directly into an advanced degree program. 57% were employed full-time; the most popular sectors were finance, consulting, healthcare, electronics, and education. Corporations landing the most recent Illini grads were KPMG, Deloitte, Epic Systems, EY, PwC, and Amazon. The average salary across all Class of 2022 majors was an extremely solid $75,000.

• Enrollment: 35,120 (undergraduate); 21,796 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $35,926-$41,190 (in-state); $55,386-$63,290 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1440
• Median ACT: 32
• Acceptance Rate: 79%
• Retention Rate: 93%
• Graduation Rate: 85%

Purdue University — West Lafayette

• West Lafayette, IN

Academic Highlights: Purdue offers over 200 majors at ten discipline-specific colleges, and 38% of course sections have an enrollment of 19 or fewer. Engineering and engineering technologies majors earn 34% of the degrees conferred by the university; the College of Engineering cracks the top ten on almost every list of best engineering schools. The Krannert School of Management is also well-regarded by employers; 11% of degrees conferred are in business. Other popular majors include computer science (10%) and agriculture (5%)—both are incredibly strong.

Professional Outcomes: Shortly after receiving their diplomas, 70% of 2022 grads headed to the world of employment while 24% headed to graduate/professional school. The top industries entered by grads in recent years are (1) health care, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices; (2) finance, insurance, and consulting; (3) manufacturing and machinery; (4) airline, aviation, and aerospace. Companies employing the greatest number of recent alumni were Amazon, Deloitte, PepsiCo, Labcorp, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft. The average starting salary was $68k across all degree programs.

• Enrollment: 37,949 (undergraduate); 12,935 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $22,812 (in-state); $41,614 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1330
• Median ACT: 31
• Acceptance Rate: 53%
• Retention Rate: 91%
• Graduation Rate: 84%

• Cambridge, MA

Academic Highlights: Undergraduates pursue one of 57 majors and 59 minors at this world-class research institution that continues to be one of the world’s most magnetic destinations for math and science geniuses.  The student-to-faculty ratio is an astonishing 3-to-1, and over two-fifths of all class sections have single-digit enrollments, and 70% of courses contain fewer than twenty students. The highest numbers of degrees conferred in 2022 were in the following majors: engineering (31%), computer science and engineering (28%), mathematics (10%), and the physical sciences (7%).

Professional Outcomes: The Class of 2023 saw 29% of its members enter the world of employment and 43% continue on their educational paths. The top employers included Accenture, Amazon, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Google, General Motors, the US Navy, Apple, Bain & Company, and McKinsey. The mean starting salary for an MIT bachelor’s degree holder was $95,000. The most frequently attended graduate schools are a who’s who of elite institutions including MIT itself, Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, and the University of Oxford.

• Enrollment: 4,657
• Cost of Attendance: $82,730
• Median SAT: 1550
• Acceptance Rate: 4%
• Retention Rate: 99%
• Graduation Rate: 95%

Columbia University

• New York, NY

Academic Highlights: Columbia offers 100+ unique areas of undergraduate study as well as a number of pre-professional and accelerated graduate programs.  Class sizes at Columbia are reasonably small and the student-to-faculty ratio is favorable; however, in 2022, it was revealed that the university had been submitting faulty data in this area. It is presently believed that 58% of undergraduate courses enroll 19 or fewer students. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in the social sciences (22%), computer science (15%), engineering (14%), and biology (7%).

Professional Outcomes: Examining the most recent graduates from Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science, 73% had found employment within six months, and 20% had entered graduate school. The median starting salary for graduates of Columbia College/Columbia Engineering is above $80,000. Many graduates get hired by the likes of Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Google, Citi, McKinsey, and Microsoft.

• Enrollment: 8,832
• Cost of Attendance: $89,587

Rice University

• Houston, TX

Academic Highlights : Rice offers more than 50 majors across six broad disciplines: engineering, architecture, music, social science, humanities, and natural science. Programs in biology, biochemistry, cognitive science, and music are incredibly strong, while the School of Architecture and the George R. Brown School of Engineering are among the highest-ranking schools in their disciplines. One-third of computer science majors are female, almost twice the national average. Class sizes are ideally small with 66% containing fewer than 20 students and a median class size of only fourteen.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduation, 88% of Rice grads have found careers or a graduate school home. Companies that employ many recent grads include Deloitte, Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, Google, and Microsoft. Over one hundred alumni are also current employees of companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Amazon, Accenture, and Meta. Across all majors, the average starting salary is $73k. One-third of graduates move directly into graduate or professional school, with Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, and Berkeley being the most popular destinations.

• Enrollment: 4,494 (undergraduate); 4,178 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $78,278
• Median SAT: 1530
• Median SAT: 35
• Acceptance Rate: 9%
• Retention Rate: 94%

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Blacksburg, VA

Academic Highlights : Eight undergraduate colleges that offer 110+ distinct bachelor’s degrees are housed within Virginia Tech. 33% of sections contain fewer than 20 students, and 21% of recent graduates report participating in some type of undergraduate research experience. Engineering is the area where the greatest number of degrees are conferred (23%), but business (20%) is a close second. Both disciplines are among the most respected at Tech, along with computer science. Other popular majors include the family and consumer sciences (8%), social sciences (8%), biology (8%), and agriculture (4%).

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 56% of the Class of 2022 were employed and 18% were in graduate school. One recent class sent large numbers to major corporations that included Deloitte (67), KPMG (44), Lockheed Martin (39), Capital One (30), EY (28), Booz Allen Hamilton (18), and Northrop Grumman (12). The median salary for 2022 graduates was $67,000. Among recent grads who decided to pursue an advanced degree, the greatest number stayed at VT, while others enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, William & Mary, Columbia, Duke, and Georgia Tech.

• Enrollment: 30,434 (undergraduate); 7,736 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $37,252 (in-state); $58,750 (out-of-state)
• Median ACT: 29
• Acceptance Rate: 57%
• Graduation Rate: 87%

Texas A&M University — College Station

• College Station, TX

Academic Highlights: With nineteen schools and colleges and 130+ undergraduate degree programs, Texas A&M is a massive operation. As the name implies, there is a heavy emphasis on agriculture, engineering, and business, which all place well in national rankings and garner deep respect from major corporations and graduate/professional schools. Class sizes trend large, but 24% of courses enroll fewer than 20 students and personal connections with professors are entirely possible, particularly through the research-oriented LAUNCH program.

Professional Outcomes: On graduation day, 54% of students had already received at least one job offer and 22% were heading to graduate/professional school. Many Aggies go on to work at major oil, tech, and consulting firms; more than 500 are employed at each of ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Chevron, EY, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Accenture, and PWC. Starting salaries were strong—on average, College of Engineering grads made $80k and College of Agriculture & Life Sciences grads netted $54k. A&M is also the eighth-largest producer of law students in the entire country.

• Enrollment: 57,512 (undergraduate); 16,502 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $31,058 (in-state); $59,336 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1270
• Median ACT: 28
• Acceptance Rate: 63%
• Retention Rate: 95%

Stanford University

• Palo Alto, CA

Academic Highlights: Stanford has three undergraduate schools: the School of Humanities & Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. 69% of classes have fewer than twenty students, and 34% have a single-digit enrollment. Programs in engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, international relations, and economics are arguably the best anywhere. In terms of sheer volume, the greatest number of degrees are conferred in the social sciences (17%), computer science (16%), engineering (15%), and interdisciplinary studies (13%).

Professional Outcomes: Stanford grads entering the working world flock to three major industries in equal distribution: business/finance/consulting/retail (19%); computer, IT (19%); and public policy and service, international affairs (19%). Among the companies employing the largest number of recent grads are Accenture, Apple, Bain, Cisco, Meta, Goldman Sachs, Google, McKinsey, Microsoft, and SpaceX. Other companies that employ hundreds of Cardinal alums include LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Airbnb. Starting salaries for Stanford grads are among the highest in the country.

• Enrollment: 8,049 (undergraduate); 10,236 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $87,833

The University of Texas at Austin

Academic Highlights: UT Austin offers over 150 majors, including those at the Cockrell School of Engineering, one of the most heralded undergraduate engineering schools around, and The McCombs School of Business, which dominates in the specialty areas of accounting and marketing. The computer science department is also top-ranked. In terms of degrees conferred, engineering is tied with biology (12%) followed by communication (11%), business (11%), and the social sciences (8%). The elite Plan II Honors Program is one of the best in the country.

Professional Outcomes: Within the College of Liberal Arts, six months after graduating, 68% of Longhorns are employed and 24% have entered graduate school. The for-profit sector attracts 65% of those employed while 19% enter public sector employment and 16% pursue jobs at a nonprofit. Major corporations that employ more than 500 UT Austin grads include Google, Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple. Engineering majors took home a median income of $79k and business majors took home $70k.

• Enrollment: 41,309 (undergraduate); 11,075 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $30,752-$34,174 (in-state); $61,180-$69,310 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1430
• Acceptance Rate: 31%
• Graduation Rate: 88%

Cornell University

Academic Highlights: A diverse array of academic programs includes 80 majors and 120 minors spread across the university’s seven schools/colleges. Classes are a bit larger at Cornell than at many other elite institutions. Still, 55% of sections have fewer than 20 students. Most degrees conferred in 2022 were in computer science (17%), engineering (13%), business (13%), and biology (13%). The SC Johnson College of Business houses two undergraduate schools, both of which have phenomenal reputations.

Professional Outcomes: Breaking down the graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest school at Cornell, 68% entered the workforce, 28% entered graduate school, 1% pursued other endeavors such as travel or volunteer work, and the remaining 3% were still seeking employment six months after receiving their diplomas. The top sectors attracting campus-wide graduateswere financial services (18%), technology (17%), consulting (15%), and education (10%). Of the students from A&S going on to graduate school, 15% were pursuing JDs, 5% MDs, and 22% PhDs.

• Enrollment: 15,735
• Cost of Attendance: $88,150
• Median SAT: 1520
• Median ACT: 34
• Acceptance Rate: 7%

Carnegie Mellon University

• Pittsburgh, PA

Academic Highlights: There are a combined 80+ undergraduate majors and 90 minors available across the six schools. Impressively, particularly for a school with more graduate students than undergrads, CMU boasts a 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio and small class sizes, with 36% containing single digits. In a given school year, 800+ undergraduates conduct research through the University Research Office. The most commonly conferred degrees are in engineering (21%), computer science (16%), mathematics (12%), business (10%), and visual and performing arts (9%).

Professional Outcomes: By the end of the calendar year in which they received their diplomas, 66% of 2022 grads were employed, and 28% were continuing to graduate school. The companies that have routinely scooped up CMU grads include Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Accenture, McKinsey, and Deloitte. With an average starting salary of $105,194, CMU grads outpace the average starting salary for a college grad nationally. Of those pursuing graduate education, around 20% typically enroll immediately in PhD programs.

• Enrollment: 7,509
• Cost of Attendance: $84,412
• Graduation Rate: 92%

Johns Hopkins University

• Baltimore, MD

Academic Highlights: With 53 majors as well as 51 minors, JHU excels in everything from its bread-and-butter medical-related majors to international relations and dance. Boasting an enviable 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio and with 78% of course sections possessing an enrollment under 20, face time with professors is a reality. Many departments carry a high level of clout, including biomedical engineering, chemistry, English, and international studies. Biology, neuroscience, and computer science, which happen to be the three most popular majors, can also be found at the top of the national rankings.

Professional Outcomes: The Class of 2022 saw 94% of graduates successfully land at their next destination within six months of exiting the university; 66% of graduates entered the world of employment and a robust 19% went directly to graduate/professional school. The median starting salary across all majors was $80,000 for the Class of 2022. JHU itself is the most popular choice for graduate school. The next most frequently attended institutions included Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and MIT.

• Enrollment: 6,044
• Cost of Attendance: $86,065

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

• Terre Haute, IN

Academic Highlights: Rose-Hulman offers 22 undergraduate degree programs. The average class size is twenty, and 94% of sections are smaller than 29 students. The engineering major accounts for 66% of all degrees conferred, and there’s a good reason for its popularity; this program is viewed among the best by prospective employers and graduate schools nationwide. Unique undergraduate engineering programs include optical engineering and international computer science; CS, in general, is the second-most popular degree program (20%).

Professional Outcomes: With six months of exiting, an enviable 99% of 2022 grads had landed at their next destination, whether employment or graduate school. Top employers of recent graduates included Boston Scientific, Cook Group, Texas Instruments, Caterpillar, Honeywell, and Rolls Royce. Raytheon, Microsoft, and Eli Lilly also have a strong alumni representation. The average first-year salary across all majors was $80k; CS majors took home $89k. 21% of 2022 grads immediately enrolled in graduate school at universities like Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, and Duke.

• Enrollment: 2,235 (undergraduate); 15 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $77,890
• Median SAT: 1460
• Acceptance Rate: 73%
• Graduation Rate: 82%

Northeastern University

Academic Highlights: Northeastern offers 290 majors and 180 combined majors within nine colleges and programs. Experiential learning is had by virtually all graduates, thanks to the school’s illustrious and robust co-op program. The D’Amore-McKim School of Business is a top-ranked school and offers one of the best international business programs anywhere, and both the College of Engineering and College of Computer Science are highly respected as well. Criminal justice, architecture, and nursing are three other majors that rate near the top nationally.

Professional Outcomes: Nine months after leaving Northeastern, 97% of students have landed at their next employment or graduate school destination. Huskies entering the job market are quickly rounded up by the likes of State Street, Fidelity Investments, IBM, and Amazon, all of whom employ 500+ Northeastern alums. Between 200 and 500 employees at Wayfair, Google, Amazon, Oracle, IBM, and Apple have an NU lineage. Starting salaries are above average (55% make more than $60k), in part due to the stellar co-op program.

• Enrollment: 20,980 (undergraduate); 15,826 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $86,821
• Median SAT: 1500
• Graduation Rate: 91%

University of Michigan

• Ann Arbor, MI

Academic Highlights: There are 280+ undergraduate degree programs across fourteen schools and colleges, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) enrolls the majority of students. The Ross School of Business offers highly rated programs in entrepreneurship, management, accounting, and finance. The College of Engineering is also one of the best in the country. By degrees conferred, engineering (15%), computer science (14%), and the social sciences (11%) are most popular. A solid 56% of classes have fewer than 20 students.

Professional Outcomes: Within three months of graduating, 89% of LSA grads are employed full-time or in graduate school, with healthcare, education, law, banking, research, nonprofit work, and consulting being the most popular sectors. Within three months, 99% of Ross grads are employed with a median salary of $90k. Top employers include Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, EY, Morgan Stanley, PwC, Deloitte, and Amazon.  Within six months, 96% of engineering grads are employed (average salary of $84k) or in grad school. General Motors, Ford, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta employ the greatest number of alumni.

• Enrollment: 32,695 (undergraduate); 18,530 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $35,450 (in-state); $76,294 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 18%

Duke University

Academic Highlights: The academic offerings at Duke include 53 majors, 52 minors, and 23 interdisciplinary certificates. Class sizes are on the small side—71% are nineteen or fewer, and almost one-quarter are less than ten. A stellar 5:1 student-to-faculty ratio helps keep classes so reasonable even while catering to five figures worth of graduate students. Computer Science is the most popular area of concentration (11%), followed by economics (10%), public policy (9%), biology (8%), and computer engineering (7%).

Professional Outcomes: At graduation, approximately 70% of Duke diploma-earners enter the world of work, 20% continue into graduate schools, and 2% start their own businesses. The industries that attract the largest percentage of Blue Devils are tech (21%), finance (15%), business (15%), healthcare (9%), and science/research (6%). Of the 20% headed into graduate school, a hefty 22% are attending medical school, 18% are in PhD programs, and 12% are entering law school. The med school acceptance rate is 85%, more than twice the national average.

• Enrollment: 6,640
• Cost of Attendance: $85,238
• SAT Range: 1490-1570
• ACT Range: 34-35
• Graduation Rate: 97%

Northwestern University

• Evanston, IL

Academic Highlights : Northwestern is home to six undergraduate schools, including Medill, which is widely regarded as one of the country’s best journalism schools. The McCormick School of Engineering also achieves top rankings, along with programs in economics, social policy, and theatre. The social sciences account for the greatest number of degrees conferred (19%), followed by communications/journalism (13%), and engineering (11%). 45% of classes have nine or fewer students enrolled; 78% have fewer than twenty enrollees. 57% of recent grads had the chance to conduct undergraduate research.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduating, 69% of the Class of 2022 had found employment and 27% were in graduate school. The four most popular professional fields were consulting (18%), engineering (18%), business/finance (16%), and communications/marketing/media (13%). Employers included the BBC, NBC News, The Washington Post , NPR, Boeing, Google, IBM, Deloitte, PepsiCo, Northrop Grumman, and Goldman Sachs. Across all majors, the average starting salary was $73k. Of those headed straight to graduate school, engineering, medicine, and business were the three most popular areas of concentration.

• Enrollment: 8,659 (undergraduate); 14,073 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $91,290

University of Notre Dame

• Notre Dame, IN

Academic Highlights: 75 majors are offered across six undergraduate colleges: the School of Architecture, the College of Arts and Letters, the Mendoza School of Business (one of the country’s best business schools), the College of Engineering, the Keough School of Global Affairs, and the College of Science. In 2022, the most degrees were conferred in business (20%), the social sciences (18%), engineering (12%), and biology (8%). A solid 60% of courses enroll fewer than 20 students, and 15% have single-digit numbers. 75% of Notre Dame undergrads study abroad.

Professional Outcomes: 69% of 2022 grads directly entered the world of employment, with the most common industries being financial services (21%), consulting (17%), technology (12%), and health services (9%). Massive numbers of alumni can be found at Deloitte, EY, PwC, IBM, Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and McKinsey & Co. The median early-career salary was $76,000. Of the 20% of grads who went directly into their graduate/professional studies, 18% were pursuing medical degrees and 9% were studying law.

• Enrollment: 8,971 (undergraduate); 4,134 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $86,125
• Acceptance Rate: 13%
• Graduation Rate: 96%

United States Coast Guard Academy

• New London, CT

Academic Highlights: Nine majors are offered: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Cyber Systems, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Operations Research and Data Analytics, Marine and Environmental Sciences, Management, and Government. All cadets complete a liberal arts-based core curriculum. Each program is meant to hone the practical and technical skills necessary to handle a wide range of situations as future Coast Guard officers. The student-to-faculty ratio is 7:1, and 61% of classes have fewer than 20 students.

Professional Outcomes: Upon graduation, all cadets are commissioned as officers in the US Coast Guard, where they must serve for a total of 5 years (85% remain in the Coast Guard for longer than that). 90% of new ensigns dive into roles as Deck Watch Officers or Engineers in Training. The remaining 10% head to flight school or operational shore units. Post-military, Coast Guard vets are highly sought after; top employers include Booz Allen Hamilton, NOAA, Deloitte, and FEMA as well as other government entities such as the Department of Homeland Security. 80% ultimately attend graduate school.

• Enrollment: 1,037
• Cost of Attendance: $0
• Median SAT: 1260
• Acceptance Rate: 15%
• Graduation Rate: 86%

University of Florida

• Gainesville, FL

Academic Highlights: With 16 colleges and 100 undergraduate majors to choose from, educational experiences are exceptionally diverse. The Warrington College of Business and the Wertheim College of Engineering are highly respected, so it’s no surprise that those two programs confer the greatest percentage of degrees—12% and 14%, respectively. Biology (11%), the social sciences (11%), and health professions (8%) are next in popularity. 53% of sections enroll fewer than 20 students, and 33% of students partake in an undergraduate research experience.

Professional Outcomes: By graduation day, 66% of the Class of 2022 had already procured a first job. The top occupational areas were engineering (13%), health care (13%), computer science (5%), and marketing (4%). 200+ Gator alumni can be found at top corporations like Google, EY, Raymond James, Deloitte, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and PwC. The average salary for all 2022 grads was $69k, with a high of $100k for computer science majors. Of those pursuing advanced degrees, a master’s degree was the most popular pursuit (63%) followed by law school (11%).

• Enrollment: 34,552 (undergraduate); 20,659 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $23,530 (in-state); $45,808 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1400
• Acceptance Rate: 23%
• Graduation Rate: 90%

University of California, Los Angeles

• Los Angeles, CA

Academic Highlights: UCLA offers 125 majors in 100+ academic departments, and more than 60 majors require a capstone experience that results in the creation of a tangible product under the mentorship of faculty members. The most commonly conferred degrees are in the social sciences (25%), biology (16%), psychology (11%), mathematics (8%), and engineering (7%). Departmental rankings are high across the board, especially in computer science, engineering, film, fine and performing arts, mathematics, and political science.

Professional Outcomes: UCLA grads flow most heavily into the research, finance, computer science, and engineering sectors. High numbers of recent grads can be found at Disney, Google, EY, Teach for America, Amazon, and Oracle. Hundreds also can be found at Bloomberg, Deloitte, Mattel, Oracle, and SpaceX. The average starting salary exceeds $55,000. 16% of recent grads enrolled directly in a graduate/professional school, with other CA-based institutions like Stanford, Pepperdine, USC, Berkeley, and Loyola Marymount being the most popular.

• Enrollment: 33,040 (undergraduate); 15,010 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $38,517 (in-state); $71,091 (out-of-state)

United States Military Academy

• West Point, NY

Academic Highlights: There are 37 majors at West Point, and students must conquer a minimum of 13 courses within their area of study as well as 24-27 courses in West Point’s core academic program. Almost 98% of class sections at West Point enroll fewer than 20 students, and plenty of research opportunities exist within each department. West Point is one of the best undergraduate engineering colleges in the country and has standout programs in civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Professional Outcomes: West Point graduates must honor their eight-year military commitment (five years of active duty, three in the reserves), and many continue their military careers beyond those requirements. When they do enter the workforce, large numbers of alumni land at Amazon, Microsoft, Deloitte, Meta, Google, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, McKinsey & Company, and Goldman Sachs, with mean mid-career pay in excess of $125,000. With military duties to fulfill, only a small percentage of cadets matriculate directly into graduate programs.

• Enrollment: 4,393
• Median SAT: 1350
• Median ACT: 30
• Acceptance Rate: 12%

United States Air Force Academy

• USAF Academy, CO

Academic Highlights: There are 32 majors, including seven with “engineering” in the title. That works out well as the Air Force Academy runs one of the premier undergraduate engineering programs in the entire country. One-third of degrees conferred in 2022 were in engineering followed by business (14%), the social sciences (13%), interdisciplinary studies (11%), and biology (6%). 66% of sections contain fewer than 20 students, and there are plenty of opportunities to participate in research at one of the 27 research centers and institutes.

Professional Outcomes: As with any service academy, the bulk of graduates spend a good portion of their careers within the armed forces. For USAFA grads, a minimum five-year commitment to the Air Force is mandatory. Many alumni spend time later in their careers working in the commercial airline industry at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines. Many also work for Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Lockheed Martin. Roughly 10% of new grads are cleared to immediately enter a graduate program in exchange for additional years of service.

• Enrollment: 4,085
• Graduation Rate: 89%

Lafayette College

Academic Highlights: Lafayette offers 51 areas of study over four academic divisions: engineering, humanities, natural sciences, and the social sciences. One-on-one attention from professors is a reality at Lafayette, thanks to a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio and no graduate students to compete with. A solid 62% of sections contain fewer than twenty students; 11% enroll nine or fewer. Of the degrees conferred in 2022, social sciences (34%) and engineering (19%) were the disciplines in which the largest number of degrees were earned.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduation, a stellar 98% of the Class of 2022 had already landed full-time jobs or were enrolled in graduate/professional school. Companies employing large numbers of Lafayette alumni include Merck, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase Co., Deloitte, and EY. Those attending graduate school frequently land at some of the top programs in the country within their respective disciplines. Medical school applicants with a 3.6 GPA or above enjoy a 72% acceptance rate, and dental school candidates find homes at an 89% clip.

• Enrollment: 2,729
• Cost of Attendance: $84,402
• Acceptance Rate: 34%
• Retention Rate: 90%

Lehigh University

• Bethlehem, PA

Academic Highlights: Lehigh has a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio, but classes aren’t as tiny as one might expect with such favorable staffing numbers. The average class size is 26 but, on the plus side, 45% of courses have enrollments of 19 or fewer. Undergraduate research is commonplace. With a highly ranked engineering school, it’s easy to view Lehigh as primarily a techie haven. Surprisingly, the majority of students pursue other programs, with Lehigh’s well-regarded business school drawing the most majors (29%); 22% graduate with a degree in engineering and 12% study CS.

Professional Outcomes: Recent grads quickly found its way toward the next productive step in their lives with 97% landing jobs or grad school placements within six months of leaving Lehigh. Among graduates of the School of Business and Economics, the top industries entered were financial services, accounting, consulting, and computer software. The average starting salary for a recent grad is $67,000. Among recent diploma-earners heading straight to graduate school, roughly 30% were studying engineering, one-quarter were pursuing business degrees, 10% were training for health professions.

• Enrollment: 5,624
• Cost of Attendance: $72,000
• Median SAT: 1410
• Acceptance Rate: 37%

Vanderbilt University

• Nashville, TN

Academic Highlights: Four of Vandy’s ten schools cater to undergrads: the College of Arts and Sciences, the Blair School of Music, the Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and the School of Engineering. In the 2022-23 school year, 87% of course sections contained 19 or fewer students. Of the 70 undergraduate majors, economics, politics and government, and neuroscience are the most popular. The School of Engineering has a strong national reputation as do offerings in biology, economics, education, and music.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduating, 96% of the Class of 2021 were employed or in graduate school. The most commonly entered industry was finance followed by technology, consulting, education, and engineering. Alumni can be found in droves at Capital One, Goldman Sachs, Bain & Company, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Meta. Among 2022 alumni who directly pursued advanced degrees, the majority enrolled at Vanderbilt followed by Columbia, Harvard, Penn, NYU, and Northwestern.

• Enrollment: 7,151 (undergraduate); 6,559 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $89,590

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Academic Highlights:  There are 125 undergraduate and graduate majors on the menu at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Sporting a 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio, the school is able to offer 32% of course sections with a cap of 19 students and only 4% enroll more than 50 individuals. Engineering is the most popular major accounting for 40% of all degrees conferred in 2022. Next on the list were computer science (28%), engineering technologies (11%), biology (5%), and business (5%).

Professional Outcomes:  Recent grads enjoyed an 85% employment rate within six months of earning their diploma and another 5% entered graduate school; 6% were still searching for their next step. The average starting salary is $67,852. Employers of 200+ alumni include Merck, JP Morgan Chase and Co., Bristol Myers Squibb, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Prudential, Citi, Amazon Web Services, Bank of America, and Microsoft.

• Enrollment: 9,019
• Cost of Attendance: $41,352 (In-State); $58,264 (Out-of-State)
• Median SAT: 1320
• Acceptance Rate: 66%
• Retention Rate: 89%
• Graduation Rate: 74%

Pennsylvania State University — University Park

• State College, PA

Academic Highlights: Penn State offers 275 majors and a number of top-ranked programs in a host of disciplines. The College of Engineering is rated exceptionally well on a national scale and is also the most popular field of study, accounting for 15% of the degrees conferred. The Smeal College of Business is equally well-regarded, earning high rankings in everything from supply chain management to accounting to marketing. It attracts 15% of total degree-seekers. 61% of classes have an enrollment below thirty students.

Professional Outcomes: By graduation, 70% of Nittany Lions have found their next employment or graduate school home. 98% of College of Business grads are successful within three months of exiting, flocking in large numbers to stellar finance, accounting, consulting, and technology firms. Hundreds of alumni work at Citi, Salesforce, and Meta, and more than 500 currently work at each of IBM, Deloitte, PwC, Amazon, EY, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle. 75% of 2022 grads employed full-time earned starting salaries greater than $50k.

• Enrollment: 41,745 (undergraduate); 7,020 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $32,656 (in-state); $52,610 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1300
• Acceptance Rate: 55%

University of California, San Diego

• San Diego, CA

Academic Highlights: There are 140+ undergraduate majors offered at UCSD, and all students join one of eight undergraduate colleges meant to forge flourishing communities within the larger university. Biology has the highest representation of all majors (19%) followed by engineering (12%), the social sciences (11%), and computer science (9%). UCSD’s computer science and engineering programs have stellar reputations in the corporate and tech communities, and programs in biology, economics, and political science are among the best anywhere.

Professional Outcomes: Employers of recent graduates included the Walt Disney Company, Tesla, NBC Universal, PwC, Northrop Grumman, and EY. More than 1,000 current Google employees are UC San Diego alumni, and Qualcomm, Amazon, and Apple all employ 500+ each. The median early career salary is $65,000 across all majors, placing the university in the top 10 public universities in the country. UCSD also fares well in measures of its return-on-investment potential.

• Enrollment: 33,096 (undergraduate); 8,386 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $31,830 (in-state); $64,404 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 25%

University of Virginia

• Charlottesville, VA

Academic Highlights: Undergrads can study within one of seven colleges/schools, which all offer many small classes; 15% boast single-digit enrollment and 48% contain 19 or fewer students. The McIntire School of Commerce and the School of Engineering and Applied Science have glowing reputations. Other notable strengths include computer science, economics, and political philosophy, policy, and law. The most popular degree areas are liberal arts/general studies (22%), the social sciences (14%), engineering (11%), business/marketing (8%), and biology (7%).

Professional Outcomes:  Upon receiving their degree, 95% of the Class of 2022 immediately joined the workforce–with an average starting salary of $90k–or headed directly to graduate school. The most popular industries were internet & software, higher education, and management consulting. Capital One (85), Deloitte (46), Amazon (38), and Bain & Co. (26) scooped up the greatest number of 2022 grads. UVA itself was the most popular grad school destination followed by Columbia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Johns Hopkins.

• Enrollment: 17,496 (undergraduate); 8,653 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $39,494-49,874 (in-state); $78,214-90,378 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 19%

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Academic Highlights: There are five undergraduate schools within the larger university: the School of Architecture; the School of Management; the School of Science; the top-ranked School of Engineering; and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. A solid 54% of sections contain fewer than 20 students. The most degrees are conferred in engineering (45%) and computer and information sciences (21%). Rensselaer has very strong programs in mechanical, aerospace, computer, electrical, and biomedical engineering as well as physics, architecture, and computer science.

Professional Outcomes: As they receive their diplomas, 54% of RPI grads have already landed a job and 32% have committed to a graduate school. The largest numbers of grads were hired by companies that included Google, Microsoft, Deloitte, General Dynamics, Boeing, and IBM. Massive numbers of alumni hold leadership positions in corporations like Google, Pratt & Whitney, General Motors, GE, and Microsoft. Recent grads enjoy starting salaries in excess of $81k.

• Enrollment: 5,895 (undergraduate); 1,096 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $82,404
• Acceptance Rate: 65%

Bucknell University

• Lewisburg, PA

Academic Highlights: Over 60 majors and 70 minors are on tap across three undergraduate schools: the College of Arts & Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineering. Getting well-acquainted with your professors is easy with a 9:1 student-faculty ratio, and class sizes are reasonably small. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in the areas of the social sciences (26%), engineering (14%), business (14%), biology (11%), and psychology (9%).

Professional Outcomes: Nine months after graduation, 94% of the Class of 2022 had launched their careers or entered graduate school. Financial services is the most common sector for Bucknell grads to enter, attracting 24% of alumni. Across all disciplines, the average salary for a Class of 2022 grad was $69,540. Bucknell saw 18% of 2022 grads go directly into an advanced degree program. Bison alumni heading to graduate school predominantly pursue degrees in the medical field, social sciences, business, or engineering.

• Enrollment: 3,747
• Cost of Attendance: $80,890
• Median SAT: 1380
• Acceptance Rate: 33%

Stevens Institute of Technology

• Hoboken, NJ

Academic Highlights: There are 35 undergraduate majors at Stevens across four undergraduate schools: the top-rated Schaefer School of Engineering & Science, the School of Business, the College of Arts and Letters, and the School of Systems and Enterprises. 49% of course sections contain fewer than 20 students. Engineering is, by far, the most common undergraduate major. Programs in computer science, cybersecurity, and quantitative finance also receive praise. Over 80% of degrees granted are in a STEM field, and most of the remaining grads major in business, finance, and accounting.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 97% of the Class of 2022 found employment or graduate school homes; most students entered the fields of finance (29%), technology (17%), aerospace/defense (9%), and construction (6%). The greatest number of recent grads landed at Google, EY, Merck, Prudential, and PwC. Massive numbers of alumni can also be found at Verizon, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. The average starting salary was $79,600. Of the 33% who immediately enrolled in graduate school, the vast majority were pursuing master’s or PhDs.

• Enrollment: 4,070 (undergraduate); 5,244 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $81,922
• Median SAT: 1450
• Acceptance Rate: 46%

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

• Worcester, MA

Academic Highlights: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) offers a hands-on and innovative project-based curriculum; all students complete a minimum of two long-term research projects that are focused on solving real-world problems. A staggering 52% of its classes enroll fewer than ten students, creating an incredible level of academic intimacy. The most popular majors are under the engineering umbrella (63%) and computer science (16%). The undergraduate engineering program is respected worldwide and frequently graces lists of top schools.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 94% of 2022 grads landed jobs or enrolled full-time in graduate school. Recent grads found jobs at top companies including Airbnb, DraftKings, Amazon Robotics, and NASA. Hundreds of WPI alumni are employed at Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, Dell, and BAE Systems. The average starting salary is over $74,000 and is one of the highest in the country. Over one-quarter of grads elect to pursue an advanced degree immediately after graduation, enrolling at institutions that recently included Georgia Tech, Brown, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford.

• Enrollment: 5,246 (undergraduate); 2,062 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $81,751

University of Wisconsin – Madison

• Madison, WI

Academic Highlights: There are 230+ undergraduate majors offered across eight schools and colleges, including the top-ranked School of Business and College of Engineering as well as the College of Letters and Science, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and the Schools of Nursing, Education, Pharmacy, and Human Ecology. Undergrads can expect a mix of large and small classes, with 44% of sections enrolling fewer than 20 students. Business (18%), biology (12%), the social sciences (11%), and engineering (10%) are most popular.

Professional Outcomes: In a recent year, 46% of job-seeking grads graduated with an offer.  Top employers included UW-Madison, Epic, Kohl’s, Oracle, Deloitte, and UW Health. Across all graduating years, companies employing 250+ alumni include Google, Target, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, PwC, Accenture, and Meta. 28% of recent grads enrolled directly in graduate/professional school; the majority stayed at UW–Madison while others headed to Columbia, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon. The university is the top producer of Peace Corps volunteers.

• Enrollment: 37,230 (undergraduate); 12,656 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $28,916 (in-state); $58,912 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 49%

University of Maryland, College Park

• College Park, MD

Academic Highlights: Undergraduates can select from 100+ majors across twelve colleges. 18% of degrees are conferred in computer science, followed by the social sciences (13%), with  criminology, government and politics, and economics being the most popular majors.  Engineering (13%), business (11%), and biology (8%) are next in line. The School of Business, the School of Engineering, and the College of Journalism are all top-ranked, as are programs in computer science and criminology. 46% of sections enroll fewer than twenty students.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 96% of Class of 2022 grads had positive outcomes. 67% found employment; the companies/organizations that hired the greatest number of grads included Northrop Grumman, Deloitte, Amazon, and EY. Meta, Apple, and Google employ more than 200 alumni each.  The mid-50% salary range for 2022 grads was $55k-$83k. 21% of the Class of 2022 headed directly to graduate and professional school; 11% entered doctoral programs, 5% entered medical school, and 5% entered law school.

• Enrollment: 30,353 (undergraduate); 10,439 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $31,540 (in-state); $60,918 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 84%

Tufts University

• Medford, MA

Academic Highlights: Three schools serve Tufts’ undergraduate population: the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The three schools combined offer more than 90 majors and minors; approximately one-third of all students double major, and half declare a minor. 15% of all courses see fewer than ten students enrolled, and 60% have sub-twenty enrollments. The most popular majors include international relations, economics, computer science, political science, and biology—all of which receive very high marks.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after earning their diplomas, 97% of 2022 graduates were employed or attending graduate school. The most commonly entered fields were finance, consulting, real estate (23%); engineering and technology (22%); health, life sciences, environmental (21%); and education, advocacy, social services (11%). Prolific employers of Tufts alums include Booz Allen Hamilton, JPMorgan, MITRE, Google, Deloitte, Amazon, Raytheon, Morgan Stanley, and BlackRock. Of the 21% of 2022 grads who went directly to graduate school, 85% were accepted into their first-choice institution.

• Enrollment: 6,815 (undergraduate); 6,616 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $88,300
• Acceptance Rate: 10%

Colorado School of Mines

Academic Highlights: There are around 20 bachelor of science degree options to choose from as well as additional areas of specialization. Classes are rarely small as Mines possesses a student-to-faculty ratio of 17:1. The average class has 34 students, and only 27% of sections have an enrollment under twenty. The largest number of degrees are conferred in mechanical engineering and petroleum engineering. In fact, 78% of all earned degrees are classified under the engineering umbrella.

Professional Outcomes: Members of the Class of 2022 landed industry jobs or full-time graduate school positions at a clip of 93%. Companies employing massive numbers of Mines’ grads include Lockheed Martin, BP, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Chevron, and Shell. Those finding employment enjoyed an average starting salary of $81,000. Nineteen percent of freshly printed diploma-holders directly enter graduate school, and the most popular institution is Mines itself, which is the choice of 82% of those pursuing advanced degrees.

• Enrollment: 5,733
• Cost of Attendance: $42,062 (In-State); $65,252 (Out-of-State)
• Acceptance Rate: 58%
• Graduation Rate: 81%

University of California, Davis

Academic Highlights: UC Davis offers 100+ undergraduate majors across four schools: the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the College of Biological Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the College of Letters and Science. 50% engage in some type of research/creative project outside the classroom. The areas of study with the largest number of degrees awarded were biology, the social sciences, psychology, and engineering. Programs in engineering, computer science, and animal science are nationally renowned.

Professional Outcomes: Many recent grads found homes at Silicon Valley or other California-based employers. Corporations employing 200 or more Aggies include Genentech, Google, Apple, Cisco, Meta, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, and LinkedIn. Ten years out of school, median earnings rise to $112k. Within one year of graduating, 39% of Aggies elect to continue their education; the most popular degrees pursued are master’s, MDs or other health doctorates, law, and MBA/MPA.

• Enrollment: 31,797 (undergraduate); 9,053 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $41,389 (in-state); $73,963 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 42%

University of Southern California

Academic Highlights : There are 140 undergraduate majors and minors within the Dornsife College of Arts & Sciences alone, the university’s oldest and largest school. The Marshall School of Business, Viterbi School of Engineering, and programs in communication, the cinematic arts, and the performing arts are highly acclaimed. Popular areas of study are business (22%), social sciences (11%), visual and performing arts (11%), communications/journalism (9%), and engineering (8%). Most courses enroll 10-19 students, and USC does an excellent job facilitating undergraduate research opportunities.

Professional Outcomes: 96% of undergrads experience positive postgraduation outcomes within six months of earning their degree. The top five industries entered were finance, consulting, advertising, software development, and engineering; the median salary across all majors is an astounding $79k. Presently, between 300 and 1,500 alumni are employed at each of Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, KPMG, Goldman Sachs, and Meta. Graduate/professional schools enrolling the greatest number of 2022 USC grads include NYU, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Pepperdine, and UCLA.

• Enrollment: 20,699 (undergraduate); 28,246 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $90,921
• Median SAT: 1510

University of Colorado Boulder

• Boulder, CO

Academic Highlights: CU Boulder offers 90 bachelor’s degree programs across seven different schools and colleges; the College of Engineering & Applied Science and the Leeds School of Business both possess excellent national reputations. Business/marketing is the discipline where the greatest number of degrees (15%) were conferred in 2022. Engineering (13%), biology (12%), social sciences (12%), and journalism (10%) are next in popularity. 41% of classes have fewer than 20 students, and only 19% of courses enroll 50 or more students.

Professional Outcomes : Within six months of leaving CU Boulder, 91% of recent grads were working or in graduate school. Those employed earned an estimated median salary of $54k, with the greatest number working at Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, Deloitte, Qualcomm, Northrop Grumman, KPMG, Charles Schwab, and Boeing. More than 100 alumni can also be found at Google, Oracle, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. 20% of new grads immediately jumped into an advanced degree program, and 80% were accepted into their first-choice school.

• Enrollment: 31,103 (undergraduate); 7,110 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $31,744 (in-state); $60,118 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1280
• Retention Rate: 88%
• Graduation Rate: 75%

University of Washington – Seattle

• Seattle, WA

Academic Highlights: 180+ undergraduate majors are offered across thirteen colleges/schools. Personal connections with professors abound as 55% of grads complete a faculty-mentored research project. The College of Engineering, which includes the College of Computer Science & Engineering, is one of the best in the nation; UW also boasts strong programs in everything from business to social work to environmental science. The most popular degrees are the social sciences (13%), biology (12%), computer science (11%), and business (8%).

Professional Outcomes: Within months of graduation, 73% of Class of 2022 grads were employed and 17% were continuing their education. The most popular employers of the Class of 2022 included Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, and KPMG. Across all living alumni, 6,000+ work for Microsoft, and 4000+ work for each of Boeing and Amazon. Of those headed to graduate/professional school, just over half remain in state, mostly at UW itself. Large numbers of 2022 grads also headed to Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and USC.

• Enrollment: 36,872 (undergraduate); 16,211 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $34,554 (in-state); $63,906 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1420
• Acceptance Rate: 48%

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

• San Luis Obispo

Academic Highlights: Across all divisions, there are 60+ majors and 80+ minors offered. The majority of courses–59%–fall between twenty and forty students. Cal Poly’s student-to-faculty ratio is a high 18:1, but such is the cost of an uber-affordable STEM degree from an excellent institution. Over one-quarter of all degrees conferred (22%) are in engineering, and Cal Poly gets recognition in many specialty areas of the field including industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, computer engineering, and civil engineering.

Professional Outcomes: Within nine months of graduating, 91% of graduates are “positively engaged” in their next life activity. Top employers of Cal Poly grads include many of the top tech, consulting, engineering, and financial firms in the country such as Google, Deloitte, KPMG, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Adobe, EY, and Apple. Overall, grads enjoy a terrific median starting salary of $72,000. Of the 14% of alumni who directly enter graduate school, the six most commonly attended schools are all in California.

• Enrollment: 20,963
• Cost of Attendance: $32,000 (in-state); $53,000 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1337
• Acceptance Rate: 30%

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

Academic Highlights: Accounting for 56% of the student body, engineering is the subject in which the largest number of degrees are conferred followed by visual arts (28%) and then architecture (16%). All three schools shine in the eyes of employers as well as other institutions of higher education. No matter your area of study at CU, students report receiving a high degree of attention and mentorship from faculty. With 57% of class sections containing fewer than 20 students, learning is an intimate endeavor.

Professional Outcomes: Due to the exceptionally low numbers of graduates from Cooper Union each year, it is hard to say that large numbers of alumni cluster in any particular company. However, it is fair to state that CU graduates regularly find their way into the most desirable firms within their respective disciplines. Forty percent of CU graduates continue their education at top-ranked graduate programs. In the last few years, Cooper Union diploma-holders have gone on to advanced study in architecture at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Penn, and Yale.

• Enrollment: 899
• Cost of Attendance: $47,271
• Acceptance Rate: 22%
• Graduation Rate: 80%

New York University

Academic Highlights: NYU is divided into a number of smaller (but still quite large) colleges organized by discipline; in sum, there are 230 areas of undergraduate study across nine schools and colleges. For its size, a commendable 58% of classes have an enrollment under 20 students. While all schools within NYU have solid reputations, Stern holds the distinction as one of the top undergraduate business programs in the country. For those entering film, dance, drama, or other performing arts, Tisch is as prestigious a place as you can find to study.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of exiting, 94% of Class of 2022 grads had landed at their next destination, with 78% employed and 21% in graduate school. The top industries for employment were healthcare (11%), internet and software (9%), finance (8%), and entertainment (8%). Large numbers of alumni can be found at Google, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Amazon. The mean starting salary is $75,336. In 2022, business, arts and sciences, and law school were the most popular grad school destinations.

• Enrollment: 29,401 (undergraduate); 29,711 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $90,222-$96,172

North Carolina State University

• Raleigh, NC

Academic Highlights: NC State offers more than 100 majors and 120 minors. 64% of sections enroll 29 or fewer students. Engineering is the most popular area of concentration as 24% of Class of 2022 graduates earned a degree in that field. Business/marketing comes in second at 17% followed by biology (10%) and agriculture (7%). NC State has an exceptional regional reputation and an expanding national one with the College of Engineering near the top of many rankings. Programs in design, architecture, and animal science are also very strong.

Professional Outcomes: 54% of students graduating in 2022 had already accepted full-time jobs before exiting; 27% were heading to graduate/professional school. Members of that class reported an average starting salary of $62,024 (with a slightly higher median). Including all graduating years, the companies employing the largest number of alumni are Cisco, Red Hat, SAS, IBM, Lenovo, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Deloitte, Facebook, and Salesforce. Many recent grads also work for the university itself and for the Wake County Public School System.

• Enrollment: 26,254 (undergraduate); 10,446 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $27,451 (in-state); $51,662 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1340
• Acceptance Rate: 47%

The Ohio State University — Columbus

• Columbus, OH

Academic Highlights: There are 200+ undergraduate majors and 18 schools and colleges housed within OSU. Business sees the greatest percentage of degrees conferred at 18% followed by engineering (15%), health professions (10%), and the social sciences (9%). It makes sense that so many flock to the business and engineering schools as they are among the highest-rated undergraduate programs in their respective disciplines. 40% of sections enroll fewer than 20 students, and approximately 20% of students gain research experience.

Professional Outcomes: Upon receiving their diplomas, 56% of Class of 2022 graduates were entering the world of employment while 17% were already accepted into graduate or professional school.  Hordes of Buckeyes can be found at many of the nation’s leading companies. More than 2,000 alumni work for JPMorgan Chase, more than 1,000 are employed by Amazon, and more than 600 work for Google and Microsoft. Of the grads who directly matriculate into graduate or professional school, many continue in one of OSU’s own programs.

• Enrollment: 45,728 (undergraduate); 14,318 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $27,241 (in-state); $52,747 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1340-1450
• Median ACT: 29-32

We hope you have found our list of the Best Colleges for Civil Engineering to be useful and informative as you continue your college search process. We also invite you to check out some of our other resources and tools including:

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A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew's experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans two decades. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid.

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Symposium inaugurates Center for Computational Market Design

A new interdisciplinary center at Stanford aims to tackle complex challenges in market design by uniting researchers with expertise in algorithm development, economics, computer science, and operations research.

The Center for Computational Market Design was inaugurated April 1 with a symposium at the Stanford School of Engineering.

“The center will highlight and amplify the work of the vibrant community of scholars, including faculty and students studying market design across campus, and support a thriving interdisciplinary research environment by facilitating workshops, recruiting postdocs and fellows, and bringing together graduate students,” Pamela Hinds , the Fortinet Founders Chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering, said in introductory remarks.

Market design is the discipline of crafting rules and procedures to create or improve markets, such as those for online advertising, ridesharing services, and even exchanging organs for transplantation. The symposium featured presenters from academia, including two Nobel laureates, as well as speakers from industry and nonprofit organizations.

In an interview, Amin Saberi , a co-director of the center and professor of management science and engineering, said he hopes that research by the center’s members can inform market-related policy decisions in health care, education, transportation, electricity, and the environment.

“One of our goals is to collaborate with industry and the government to analyze existing markets and improve their performance,” Saberi said. “We also hope that the center becomes a launchpad for prototyping new marketplaces.”

Itai Ashlagi , the center’s other co-director and a professor of management science and engineering, said in an interview that the rise of artificial intelligence played a role in the decision to launch the center. “AI is going to be a big player in marketplaces,” he said.

In remarks at the symposium, Saberi called out a 2002 paper by Alvin Roth , professor of economics at Stanford and co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, that highlighted the emerging discipline of market design. Roth, a member of the new center, advanced the notion of economists as engineers.

Saberi also talked about the contributions of computer scientists, including research done by him and Ashlagi, influencing the design of online marketplaces.

Market design without borders

Roth, the Craig and Susan McCaw Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, said that national borders often hinder kidney exchanges. That’s because most countries don’t permit organs from foreign donors to be used within their borders for transplantation. He noted that the World Health Organization even encourages countries’ organ-procurement programs to be self-sufficient – that is, to draw only from the supply within their borders. Roth is not a fan of this approach.

“We don’t require countries to be self-sufficient in anything else,” he said. “When there’s a famine, we don’t advise countries to have a better, more robust agricultural sector. When there’s a COVID pandemic, we don’t advise countries to develop their pharmaceutical sector.”

Roth said one of his goals for the new center is to find ways to clear the logistical hurdles, such as different rules governing health care and patient privacy, that stymie efforts to coordinate kidney exchanges internationally.

“I’m hoping that we’re going to be able to overcome these border issues because end-stage renal disease is a global problem,” he said. “It needs global solutions.”

Opportunities, challenges in market design

During a panel discussion, several speakers discussed the possibilities and perils of AI in market design. Ann Miura Ko, PhD ’10, co-founding partner of the venture capital firm Floodgate, said she believes that generative AI will automate workflows and some knowledge work, such as generating contracts, clearing a path for “solopreneurs” to compete with large, established businesses.

Hal Varian, the chief economist at Google, raised the question of whether algorithms could violate antitrust law, citing a recent lawsuit alleging that several Atlantic City hotels engaged in illegal price-fixing by using the same algorithm to set rates for their rooms. He implicitly suggested that market-design models incorporating AI could potentially run afoul of antitrust law.

Other presenters discussed more specific market-design challenges. Paul Milgrom, professor of economics at Stanford and the Shirley R. and Leonard W. Ely, Jr. Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, said he hopes to design a market for water allocation in California. A co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Milgrom said he plans to tackle the project by applying lessons he learned as an architect of the Federal Communications Commission’s system for auctioning radio spectrum from television to wireless broadband. Challenges posed by allocating spectrum are somewhat similar to those posed by designing a market for water allocation in the state, he said.

During the reception following the symposium, Ashlagi surveyed attendees as they munched on hors d’oeuvres and sipped drinks. “As a part of the center’s work, we hope to organize workshops that bring experts from outside and inside academia to collaborate,” he said. “We want to inspire the next generation to pursue innovative and effective market design.”

Related : Itai Ashlagi , professor of management science and engineering 

Related : Amin Saberi , professor of management science and engineering

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Unlocking the “Iron Cage” of Corporate Conformity

A scholar of organizations looks at how the pressure to homogenize affects industries — including his own.

April 11, 2024

Organizations are pushed to become more and more alike over time. | iStock/Jorm Sangsorn

As a newly hired assistant professor of organizational behavior and sociology at the Yale School of Management, Walter (Woody) Powell observed a strange phenomenon through his office window. It was 1979. Bold colors and patterns were in style and his students came to campus dressed in jeans and vivid colors.

But then recruiters would arrive from consulting firms like Bain, McKinsey, and Boston Consulting Group. Powell would see colorfully dressed students dash into the bathrooms before their job interviews, emerging in the muted attire of a businessperson: white shirts, navy blue jackets, pencil skirts.

“I was stunned by this transformation,” he says. When it came time to join an organization, these “free spirits” believed they had to put on the right uniform to be taken seriously.

Quote Powell would see colorfully dressed students dash into the bathrooms before their job interviews, emerging in the muted attire of a businessperson.

Powell and another young faculty member, Paul DiMaggio , were interested in understanding what caused this kind of homogenization. From their research and discussions with colleagues across a range of disciplines, a thesis emerged: As a field starts to emerge and take shape, pressures inside and outside organizations push them to become more and more alike. In 1983, they published their argument in an article in the American Sociological Review titled “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” What had started with a few curious observations became the most cited paper in the journal’s history and a seminal moment in the fields of organizational development and sociology.

Now a professor of organizational behavior (by courtesy) at Stanford Graduate School of Business who is also affiliated with Stanford’s schools of education, engineering, and humanities and sciences, Powell reflects on the 40-year legacy of that paper. In a new article , he and DiMaggio, now at New York University, revisit the origins of their “iron cage” model and its continued relevance.

The More Things Change…

By the time they teamed up, Powell and DiMaggio had already studied industries where once diverse and vibrant organizations had cohered and flattened. DiMaggio had looked at cultural organizations in New England. In the mid-19th century, local performance venues offered both popular minstrel shows and more elite fare, such as readings from Shakespeare. Yet these venues standardized their programs over time, dividing elite and popular culture into distinct avenues. Powell noted a similar shift in the publishing industry, where generalist family-owned firms started to differentiate into trade, scholarly, and popular houses as they were acquired by large corporations. He and DiMaggio were curious about which environmental and cultural factors made such homogenization so common.

It was a novel approach during an otherwise quiet moment in organizational sociology, when scholars endlessly focused on the best way to organize a company and how many people should report to a single boss.DiMaggio and Powell brought in influences from the study of culture and other disciplines. The title came from the German scholar and polymath Max Weber, who coined the term “iron cage” to describe the limitations of rationalism and bureaucracy; they combined Weber’s idea with their real-world observations.

Revisiting their original paper, DiMaggio and Powell recall how their research on nonprofits showed the pressures that drive organizations to morph into similar structures, a phenomenon they termed “isomorphism.” They describe watching consultants work with New York’s WNET, the country’s largest public television station, as it struggled with massive budget cuts. The station relied on government funding, which had been slashed under the Reagan Administration. This put it under what Powell and DiMaggio call coercive pressure — in this case, pressure to conform so it wouldn’t upset its critics in Washington.

WNET was also subject to what DiMaggio and Powell call mimetic and normative isomorphism. As industries start to professionalize and as their employees switch companies, their structures begin to look the same. This is particularly true during times of uncertainty, when organizations start to copy their competitors.

DiMaggio and Powell call out consulting firms, which exercise their own kind of isomorphic pressures as they dole out advice. DiMaggio and Powell describe these firms like Johnny Appleseeds, spreading “a few organizational models throughout the land.” At WNET, which had many small, autonomous departments, the consultants suggested a more top-down reorganization to “make the sleepy nonprofit seem modern.” Suddenly, the independent station looked just like any other broadcaster.

Collaboration vs. Isolation

At the time Powell and DiMaggio wrote their original paper, Yale’s management school was building an unusual reputation, focused on sending students into government and nonprofits in addition to private industry. (One joke was that while Harvard MBAs dreamed of driving Porsches, Yale MBAs dreamed of driving Volvos.) Powell was thrilled by the school’s open, collaborative atmosphere and its emphasis on cross-disciplinary scholarship. “I was like a kid in a candy store,” he says. In the social sciences cafeteria, senior and junior faculty from management, economics, political science, and sociology would mix and share lunch tables.

The iron cage paper has since grown to take on a life of its own, Powell says. It reinvigorated the field of organizational behavior, spawning interest in how networks affect companies and how the movement of personnel and hiring practices changes an industry. Now, Powell is interested in the work of younger Stanford GSB faculty like Amir Goldberg , who uses computational analysis to examine the language in corporate emails to predict whether a new hire will fit in.

Ironically, though, Powell and DiMaggio now lament that the structure of academia has itself calcified. “Many scholarly communities are now like suburbs, nice quiet villages that have their own language, their own ways of doing work,” they write in “The Iron Cage Redux.” Young scholars feel such pressure to publish — and are so worried about securing tenure — that their research has grown myopic. “The work is kind of narrow and speaks to a limited audience,” Powell says.

He and DiMaggio also caution against isolation and division among disciplines. “[W]e need boulevards and avenues that run through the suburbs and around the parks,” they write. Talk to your colleagues, seek out influences beyond your department, they urge. You don’t have to wear the same uniform as everyone else.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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ME 2024 Commencement and Diploma Ceremony

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Stanford Mechanical Engineering Diploma Ceremony for the Class of 2024

The Stanford ME Department is thrilled to welcome the class of 2024 to participate in our Diploma Ceremony on Sunday, June 16, 2024.  We look forward to celebrating our graduates as they walk the stage in front of family and friends.

• When:  Sunday, June 16, 2024, from 12:30 to 3:30 pm, reception to follow
• Where:  Maples Pavilion ,  655 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305. Reception will be held at Chuck Taylor Grove, adjacent to the Avery Aquatic Center and a short walk from the ceremony. 
• Who:   Graduates of the class of 2024 (BS, MS, ENGR, PhD)

Only students who confer a degree in autumn, winter, spring, or summer of 2023-2024 may participate in the ME Diploma Ceremony as a member of the class of 2024. If you graduated in a previous quarter (summer 2023) or will be graduating in a future quarter, please see details about submitting a Walkthrough petition.

• Graduate : student who has graduated and conferred a degree in any quarter of 2023-2024. 
• Walkthrough : students who have conferred their degree in a previous quarter, or will be conferring their degree in the summer quarter of 2024 will need to register as a Walkthrough participant in the ME Diploma Ceremony. See details below. 

Mechanical Engineering Walkthrough Form 2024 :  https://forms.gle/QSs5u8M7cmC6kbrPA

This is a form for people who are not receiving a degree this spring, but want to participate in the ME Diploma Ceremony in June. This is not an application to graduate. 

• ME-BS  students must have completed at least 160 undergraduate units by the end of spring quarter. 
• ME-MS  students must have completed at least 36 graduate units by the end of spring quarter. 
• ME-PhD  students must have a scheduled Oral Exam for spring or summer quarters. 

You can check how many units you've completed by checking your transcript. Be sure to order your cap and gown from the Stanford Bookstore. Caps and gowns must be worn to participate in all Commencement ceremonies. We'll send an email in early May to confirm whether your Walkthrough Petition has been approved by ME Student Services.

This form is only for the ME Diploma Ceremony that will take place on Sunday, June 16, 2024. This form is not for the main university ceremony that takes place at the football stadium. If you have any question about the main university ceremony at the football stadium, please read the information at  commencement.stanford.edu .

We will be hosting boxed lunches for students and guests between 11:15am - 12:00pm. 

• Tickets will not be required for the ME Diploma Ceremony. Graduates are welcome to invite family and friends to celebrate, with no restrictions on the number of guests.

Graduates:  Important things to know and do

• Apply to graduate in Axess.
• Indicate whether you will be participating in Commencement and Diploma Ceremonies (this is part of the application to graduate, in Axess).
• Be on the lookout for emails from ME Student Services with details about Commencement Info Sessions (attendance is mandatory), and other ceremony logistics.
• Be sure to submit a final, completed program sheet (BS, MS) which will be used to clear you for graduation. 

For Family and Friends

• Due to staff bandwidth, the mechanical engineering department will be communicating details about our ceremony with students/graduates only, not with family members. Please continue to check this web page, or speak with your graduate in order to obtain information about our ceremony.  
• https://visit.stanford.edu/basics/lodging.html
• https://reunion.stanford.edu/plan-your-visit/hotels-lodging  

Health and Safety Update

• Clear Bag Policy: Maples Pavilion follows the Public Safety Clear Bag Policy . See the link for details. 
• Maples will have a limited bag check station in front of the building, but we cannot guarantee that there will be space available for your bag. Also, please be aware that any checked bag may be subject to inspection when checking it in. 
• All attendees are subject to security screening. 
• We follow all federal, state, and local guidelines regarding public health and safety, so please check back here before you arrive. 

The Program:

Graduating Students

(all times are approximate)

12:00-12:30pm: Grad Check-In/Line-Up

12:30pm: Ceremony begins

12:45pm: Opening Remarks (~10 minutes)

12:55pm: Graduate Awards (~10 minutes)

1:05pm:  Awarding of Doctoral Degrees and Hooding Ceremony (~45 minutes)

1:50pm: Awarding of Master's Degrees (~25 minutes)

2:15pm: Undergraduate Awards (~20 minutes)

2:35pm: Awarding of Bachelor's Degrees (~45 minutes)

3:20pm: Closing Remarks

Accessibility

There will be an accessibility Dropoff tent on Campus Drive right in front of Maples Pavilion. You may drop off/pick up guests needing assistance there.

If you need accommodation for accessibility issues, please email [email protected] .

Request for Disability-Related Accommodations 

Access, Mobility, and Transportation Resources

Helpful Links

For information about the main in-person Stanford University Commencement Celebration please go to Stanford's Commencement webpage .

updated 4/10/2024

Capturing the movement

Students in an introductory seminar on conservation photography learn that a camera can be a powerful tool for change.

Conservation Photography students show off their burgeoning camera skills. (Image credit: Susan McConnell)

A group of Stanford first-year students gathered around a dock on a sunny February day in Moss Landing Harbor, weighed down by cameras, lenses, and extra snacks. The group was listening to a short talk from their professor, Susan McConnell, who was giving them pointers on photographing wildlife from a moving boat.

“The shorter your focal length, the less you have to worry about blur,” said McConnell, the Susan B. Ford Professor, Emerita, and professor of biology in the  School of Humanities and Sciences . “And so I think I’m going to use ‘shutter priority’ with my own camera.”

The students clambered onto a pontoon boat run by Elkhorn Slough Safaris and soon had their first wildlife sighting of the day: a California sea lion with a large fish in its mouth. A chorus of shutter sounds erupted from the group as the students rushed to photograph the sea lion before it slid back under the water.

These first-year students are enrolled in “Conservation Photography,” an  Introductory Seminar  course that covers the history, practice, and applications of photography focused on conservation and the environment. McConnell, a developmental neurobiologist by training, began teaching the course in 2010.

“I’ve always had a passion for wildlife and photography,” said McConnell. “And some of my own mentors were passionate and ardent conservationists.”

Students come to the course with varying levels of photography experience, but the syllabus covers more than how to use a camera. Over the quarter, the students learned about how photography has been used to influence social movements and causes throughout history, including during the Civil War, in the establishment of the National Park system, and during the movement to outlaw child labor in the early 1900s.

The course is structured around what McConnell calls the “Four A’s”: Appreciation, Analysis, Advocacy, and Activism, and students examine photography case studies related to those themes throughout the quarter. For instance, the class examined photographs related to the climate crisis when learning about activism photography.

“We need to fix this, and how are we going to use images to actually alter people’s behaviors?” said McConnell. “What kinds of images are going to personalize the fact that climate change is everywhere and it’s affecting people’s lives now?”

Putting new skills to work

This guided tour of Elkhorn Slough was a chance for students to test their photography skills in the field, and see coastal wildlife up close.

“I haven’t done a lot of photography,” said first-year student Megan Chiang, before the tour began. “Honestly, anything I can see would be awesome.”

Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing provided a unique backdrop for McConnell’s course. In addition to the abundant wildlife, she encouraged the students to photograph the human activity surrounding the slough, where wildlife is thriving despite humanity’s influence on the area.

“There’s this incredible juxtaposition of nature and the harbor itself,” said McConnell. “As you go into the slough, there’s farmland, and issues of runoff, and then the power plant itself, which is a big player in the area.”

The boat was still in the harbor, but the students had already seen hordes of sea lions, flocks of marine birds, and a sea otter. Young male sea lions crashed into the water and playfully fought along the harbor’s docks as the tour guide taught the students about the history of Moss Landing and the creation of Elkhorn Slough, which is home to one of the nation’s largest marsh restorations.

First-year student Sam Warren didn’t have much photography experience before this quarter, but thought that the course might relate to his interest in environmental justice.

“I think photography has historically been a great way to further a lot of environmental justice causes,” said Warren. “And to bring communities that might be viewed as smaller by society to the front of those conversations.”

As the boat made its way out of the harbor, the students were greeted by more wildlife: pelicans and gulls perched on a made-made rock pile, and sea otters swam and hunted around the boat.

While most of the students were excited to see otters and seals, first-year student Emily Chu was happy to see so many birds on this trip.

“I’ve always loved birding specifically,” said Chu. “And I was never able to learn how to properly take photos of birds. I love spreading information about birds and bird conservation, so I wanted to learn to use photos to tell a story.”

Into the slough

As the boat continued into Elkhorn Slough, the students learned more about the area’s history of industry and conservation, as well as some fun facts (sea otters have favorite rocks that they use to smash open mollusks, and the animals may carry around the same rock for months or even years). The slough provides an excellent habitat for otters – in fact, sea otter populations may be reaching their carrying capacity in the area, showcasing the endangered species’ excellent local recovery, even amid the industrial backdrop.

At the end of the course, students generated a photo essay related to a local conservation or environmental issue. While many students chose to focus on wildlife on or near campus, others wrote about sustainability issues facing the Stanford community. Some students hope to apply their new photography skills to their other passions.

First-year student Antonio Vega said he’d never touched a camera before this class.

“I’m from the Sonoran Desert, which is one of the most biodiverse deserts in the world,” said Vega. “Nature is something that has always captivated me, especially pertaining to my culture. So I want to use a new skill that I can learn in this class to tell a story from the perspective of my people in a different way, capture nature in a different way, and be able to immerse myself in a different environment.”

The group continued to spot an abundance of wildlife throughout the tour, including harbor seals lounging on the muddy shores, sea lions with pups, and flocks of wading birds. At the end of the trip, the tour guide called out some statistics: the group had seen 52 sea otters, 67 harbor seals, 88 sea lions, and 29 species of birds.

Although they were thrilled to see so much wildlife, McConnell and her course assistant, Marina Luccioni, hope that students take away a larger message from the trip.

“Everyone in this class is so passionate and motivated, and it’s so hopeful to me to see such an awesome group of students who care about conservation from a lot of different angles,” said Luccioni, a graduate student in the Laboratory of Organismal Biology at Stanford. “We’ll see what students do to make their photos not just cute photos of otters eating, but something a little more meaningful.”