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Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

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2023 Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

125 Colleges

Finding the Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree School for You

Civil Engineering is the #50 most popular major in the country with 21,388 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

It's not easy to decide which program to enroll in when you have so many options available. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 125 schools in the United States to see which doctor's degree programs offered the best educational experiences for students. Factors related to overall quality of the school, post-graduation earnings, average student debt, and more accumulated were considered when coming up with this list.

View our full ranking methodology.

2023 Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools in the United States

Check out the civil eng doctor's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best education that money can buy.

Top 15% Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Massachusetts Institute of Technology the best school in the United States for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the midsize city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

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#2

Duke University

Durham, NC

Out of the 125 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Duke University landed the # 2 spot on the list. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Durham.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Duke University

#3

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Princeton University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the small city of Princeton, Princeton is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

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#4

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of Notre Dame helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best civil engineering schools in the United States. Notre Dame is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Notre Dame.

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#5

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Northwestern University. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Evanston.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Northwestern University

#6

Rice University

Houston, TX

With a ranking of #6, Rice University did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Rice is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Houston.

Full Civil Engineering at Rice University Report

University of Virginia - Main Campus ranked #7 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the small suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at University of Virginia - Main Campus Report

#8

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN

Vanderbilt University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Vanderbilt is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Nashville.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Vanderbilt University

#9

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Cornell University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Ithaca.

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The University of Texas at Austin did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for civil engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. UT Austin is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Austin.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin

#11

Lehigh University

Bethlehem, PA

Lehigh University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for civil engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #11 on the list. Lehigh is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Bethlehem.

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With a ranking of #12, Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a public college with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus Report

#13

Purdue University - Main Campus

West Lafayette, IN

With a ranking of #13, Purdue University - Main Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Purdue is a very large public school located in the city of West Lafayette.

Full Civil Engineering at Purdue University - Main Campus Report

University of Southern California ranked #14 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at University of Southern California Report

#15

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Stanford University landed the #15 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

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University of California - Berkeley ranked #16 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public school located in the midsize city of Berkeley.

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Texas A&M University - College Station landed the #17 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the midsize city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public school with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University - College Station Report

With a ranking of #18, North Carolina State University did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. NC State is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Raleigh.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at North Carolina State University

Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional great schools for Civil Engineering students that almost earned our Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
19 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
20 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
21 University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI
22 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA
23 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
24 Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO
25 University of Washington - Seattle Campus Seattle, WA

Civil Engineering by Region

View the Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Great Lakes

Civil Engineering is one of 40 different types of programs to choose from.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering 46,178
Electrical Engineering 28,844
Computer Engineering 17,987
Chemical Engineering 12,917
Biomedical Engineering 12,811

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • Read more about our ranking methodology.
  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Master Sgt. Roger Parsons.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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