A Guide To The Best Colleges For Mechanical Engineering

So you’ are 17 years old and wondering which college programs to apply to. Mechanical engineering may be something you should consider if any or multiple of the following apply to you:

  • If you used to want to be an “inventor” when you were younger, but can’t find that listed as a major anywhere.

  • If you like math and physics, but coding doesn’t excite you.

  • If you’ve spent an insane amount of time (borderline obsession) working on a FIRST or VEX robotics team.

  • If you self-identify as a “car guy/gal” or enjoy waking up at 5 am to watch a Formula 1 Race.

  • If you like “building things.”

  • If you’re interested in creating products people will use.

  • If you watched Iron Man and want to be able to make an iron man suit one day…

There are a million other versions of this story that could apply to you, but the bottom line is that you’re considering a bachelor of mechanical engineering. 

What To Look For

A mechanical engineering degree has many benefits. The average mechanical engineer makes nearly $100k in the US. That is huge! There is a very clear path out of college to a job (we wrote The 4-Year Plan that walks you through that path) and as a result, you are very likely to have options after graduating, allowing you to choose what works best for you. 

When it comes to impact and versatility, a mechanical engineering degree is hard to beat. Mechanical engineers work in essential and exciting fields like manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, energy, and healthcare. They are critical for driving advancement in everything from surgery to satellites, and any company that works even remotely with hardware will have at least one.Unlike with many fields of science where PhD’s are virtually a requirement for higher level work (and also pigeonhole you into a specific field), a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering is enough to enter and succeed in virtually any of the industries listed. 

On a personal side note, I believe that as America onshores its manufacturing over the next decade, mechanical engineering majors are going to be in demand more than ever. Covid has taught us that our nation’s supply chains are extremely sensitive to adverse events (like a pandemic). Moving forward, companies will need to onshore and diversify their supply chains and manufacturing to mitigate risk. Mechanical engineers will be essential to enabling these new initiatives. 

One of the most prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms, Andreesen Horowitz, has a new investing thesis related to these issues called American Dynamism. They invest “in founders and companies that support the national interest, including but not limited to aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chain, industrials and manufacturing. [They] believe that mission-driven and civic-minded founders often build companies that transcend verticals and business models in their quest to solve important national problems.”

They put together a list of the 50 companies they are most excited about pursuing this mission. This is a great list of companies to look at when applying for jobs.

A mechanical engineering degree also comes with some cons. It’s a fairly math-heavy major, so if you didn’t like Calculus AB/BC, then multi-variable calculus, linear algebra, heat transfer, fluids, and materials could be a challenge. Furthermore, mechanical engineering is a relatively “old” major, so many programs across the country have pretty old-school “boring” classes that have not changed in decades. This can be especially challenging for those who expect hands-on work, engaging lectures, and lots of personal guidance (you will probably not receive this at a large school). This makes it even more important to consider the mechanical engineering program in addition to the school as a whole.

It’s a difficult major. Everyone struggles, and that’s okay. But coming out of high school with a 4.6 GPA and a 36 on the ACT may not save you from getting a C on your first midterm. While some of your friends are out partying, you may be doing problem sets. It’s not all work, and there’s definitely time to have a fun and enriching college life if you prioritize it, but it won’t be as easy for you as a lot of your friends. On the bright side you won’t have to write very many papers (though lab reports will fill that hole in your life)!

Recently lots of students inspired by the likes of SpaceX and NASA have been pouring into aerospace majors at a rate not seen since the Space Race. I often warn students that by choosing a niche of MechE so early they can adversely affect potential job opportunities down the line. The great thing about mechanical engineering is that it is a very broad field. You can specialize (note the language here, I did not say major) in pretty much anything. This can be a good thing, but also can be quite challenging, and may leave you wondering which direction to go. The good news is that all those directions are open to you, and you can even switch down the road if you don’t like what you chose or want to try something new! 

Alright, so you’re sold on getting a bachelor of mechanical engineering. What’s next?

Well . . . you need to figure out what you want to get out of your mechanical engineering journey. The best schools for mechanical engineering might not actually be the best school for you, as the emphases in their respective mechanical engineering programs can differ widely. Let's break down some of the options.

The Breakdown

Best Mechanical Engineering Programs According To Rankings

These are the schools that U.S News always ranks as the “best colleges for mechanical engineering.” The MITs, the Stanfords, the Berkeleys. While they are great institutions. They are often ranked at the top because of their low acceptance rates, research, and other accolades. Companies love recruiting their engineers because they have already been selected as elite (thus some companies use this as a method of prescreening). While you should 100% apply to the top mechanical engineering schools and probably go to them if you get in (financial package dependent), they aren’t the “end all be all.” We’ll talk more about that later.

Okay, so which schools fall into this category? 

MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Purdue, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and Cornell

Best Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Schools For Those Who Know MechE Is LIFE

There is a group of good mechanical engineering schools that make sense for those who really know mechanical engineering is for them. What do I mean by this? Well, schools like Olin and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) only make sense if you know you want to be a mechanical engineer. They are very small schools, so if you realize that art history is your passion or decide you might prefer a non-technical major, then you’re going to be out of luck.

These are some of the best mechanical engineering programs for a “new” approach to the mechanical engineering curriculum. They have their students learn through projects and labs instead of lectures. The benefits of small class size are also not to be underestimated. It’s the difference between potentially never saying a single word to your professor and being on a first-name basis. A theoretical example I like to give is instead of teaching multivariable calculus out of a textbook, they might offer a boat-building class where you learn about double and triple integrals via calculating water displacement. 

OK, so which schools fall into this category? 

Olin, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Embry-Riddle, California Polytechnic State University (SLO), Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Michigan Technological University (MTU), and Colorado School of Mines

Best Mechanical Engineering Universities For Your Buck

The answer to this one is probably state schools. A bunch of state schools have already been mentioned in the “Best Mechanical Engineering Programs According To Rankings” section, but there is a whole other group of good colleges for mechanical engineering that are phenomenal, and as long as they are located in the state you live in they are relatively cheap . . . at least compared to most $70k a year schools. They often heavily invest in mechanical engineering clubs like Formula SAE, Baja, and a long list of rocketry ones. On average, state school tuition for mechanical engineering is a little north of $8k a year. When you factor in that MechEs often make 70K plus straight out of school, the financials work out very well. Honestly, it is possible to succeed in the field with a degree in mechanical engineering from almost any school. But, it will require more initiative, and having a degree from a “name brand” university makes opening doors easier (again, not impossible without, just more difficult). 

OK, so which schools fall into this category? 

Whatever bigger schools are in the state you live in are guaranteed to have a decently fleshed out mechanical engineering curriculum with opportunities to excel. Some examples include The University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, Michigan State, Texas A&M, UC San Diego, Penn State, and Virginia Tech

Best Canadian Mechanical Engineering Schools

This article wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention Canadian mechanical engineering schools. The Canadian mechanical engineers are a powerhouse at tech companies in Silicon Valley and car companies in the midwest (they can’t work in aerospace/defense because U.S citizenship is required). They often have unique curriculums that require their students to complete 3-5 internships/co-ops (insane). All of them graduate with a significant amount of work experience, making them attractive to the hiring market. While working at Tesla, it sometimes felt like half the mechanical engineering interns (and a good portion of the FTEs) were from Waterloo especially. 

OK, so which schools fall into this category? 

The University of Waterloo, University of Alberta, McGill University, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia,

Best Mechanical Engineering Graduate Schools

This is not a guide to graduate schools, but to cover it briefly, there’s not a lot of need to think about graduate school when applying for an undergraduate program. You can easily switch schools or stay depending on your preference. The most important thing to consider is if colleges offer a 5th year masters degree if that is something you might be interested in. A 5th year saves you a whole year of tuition (as compared to a regular masters degree) and can also get you something like a $10-15k salary bump in your first job. link

Some Other Things To Think About:

A lot of the learning that happens in college, happens outside the classroom. This is especially important for mechanical engineers. Projects and experience can often be weighted higher than GPA when applying for jobs (up to a point, keeping GPA over a certain level is still important, though school dependent). This means that sometimes spending 30+ hours a week working on a formula car can be totally worth it. Plus, the connections you make along the way are likely to significantly impact the trajectory of your career (it did to ours). This was the single most influential choice we made in college. 

Even though getting a degree in engineering is difficult and time-consuming (if it’s not, you may have done something wrong), it’s important to have some sense of balance. Don’t fall into the trap of studying all day every day. Find friends, be social, and see what else college life has to offer. One way or another it will pay dividends. There is no excuse.

While I know we didn’t give you mechanical engineering undergraduate rankings in the strictest sense, or top 100 mechanical engineering schools, hopefully, these insights will open your eyes to the multitude of phenomenal mechanical engineering colleges out there. Your college experience is something that only you can shape, so even if a school doesn’t have every single thing on your checklist, it’s all about how you make it work (preferably with style)!