Mechanical Engineering at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

What traits are you looking for in a ME school? To help you decide if California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo is right for you, we've gathered the following information about the school's ME program.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is located in San Luis Obispo, California and approximately 22,440 students attend the school each year. Of the 5,421 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo in 2021, 293 of them were mechanical engineering majors.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Mechanical Engineering section at the bottom of this page.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mechanical Engineering Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in ME
• Master’s Degree in ME

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mechanical Engineering Rankings

Each year, College Factual ranks ME programs across the country. The following shows how Cal Poly San Luis Obispo performed in these rankings.

Note: While rankings may be a good starting point when you're researching a school, they don't necessarily highlight all of a school's strengths. Don't forget to check out the other details that are available for a school to see if it has what you're looking for in a program.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The ME major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Mechanical Engineering. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Best Value Mechanical Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	11
Best Mechanical Engineering Schools	16

In 2021, 28 students received their master’s degree in ME from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This makes it the #74 most popular school for ME master’s degree candidates in the country.

Earnings of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ME Graduates

The median salary of ME students who receive their bachelor's degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is $74,806. This is 15% higher than $65,190, which is the national average for all ME bachelor's degree recipients.

ME Student Demographics at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the ME majors at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s Program

Of the 293 ME students who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2020-2021 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, about 78% were men and 22% were women. The typical ME bachelor's degree program is made up of only 17% women. So female students are more repesented at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo since its program graduates 5% more women than average.

About 56% of those who receive a bachelor's degree in ME at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are white. This is typical for this degree on the nationwide level. Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 10% more racial-ethnic minorities in its ME bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo with a bachelor's in ME.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	44
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	40
White	163
International Students	5
Other Races/Ethnicities	41

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mechanical Engineering Master’s Program

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 28 students earned a master's degree in ME from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. About 21% of these graduates were women and the other 79% were men.

Of the students who received a ME master's degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 61% were white. This is above average for this degree on the natiowide level. In the ME master's program at this school, racial-ethnic minorities make up 32% of degree recipients. That is 5% better than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo with a master's in ME.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	5
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	1
White	17
International Students	1
Other Races/Ethnicities	4

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo also has a doctoral program available in ME. In 2021, 0 student graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Other Engineering
• General Engineering
• Engineering Science
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Environmental Engineering

Careers That ME Grads May Go Into

A degree in ME can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for CA, the home state for California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.

Occupation	Jobs in CA	Average Salary in CA
Architectural and Engineering Managers	31,580	$175,010
Cost Estimators	28,660	$78,190
Mechanical Engineers	27,330	$107,370
Aerospace Engineers	11,440	$125,540
Engineering Professors	2,400	$129,790

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Daderot under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.