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Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools

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2023 Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools

187 Colleges
$70,613 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Civil Engineering Master'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.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools ranking. Our analysis looked at 187 schools in the United States to see which master'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 Master’s Degree Schools in the United States

The following schools top our list of the Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Colleges.

Top 25 Top Schools for a Master's in Civil Engineering

#1

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Our 2023 rankings named Stanford University the best school in the United States for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

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#3

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

Out of the 187 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Northwestern University landed the # 3 spot on the list. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Evanston.

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#4

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Princeton University. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Princeton, Princeton is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

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#5

Rice University

Houston, TX

Out of the 187 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Rice University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Rice is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Houston.

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#6

Duke University

Durham, NC

Duke University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree civil engineering programs. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Durham.

Full Civil Engineering at Duke University Report

#7

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN

With a ranking of #7, Vanderbilt University did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. Vanderbilt is a large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Nashville.

Full Civil Engineering at Vanderbilt University Report

Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree civil engineering programs. Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Terre Haute.

Full Civil Engineering at Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology Report

With a ranking of #9, University of Virginia - Main Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. Located in the small suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Virginia - Main Campus

#10

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA

Santa Clara University ranked #10 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the midsize city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Santa Clara University Report

#11

Villanova University

Villanova, PA

Villanova University came in at #11 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Villanova is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Villanova.

Full Civil Engineering at Villanova University Report

University of Southern California did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for civil engineering students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #12 on the list. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit college with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at University of Southern California Report

#13

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Cornell University came in at #13 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools ranking. Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Ithaca.

Full Civil Engineering at Cornell University Report

North Carolina State University came in at #14 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools ranking. NC State is a very large public school located in the large city of Raleigh.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at North Carolina State University

With a ranking of #15, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a fairly large public school located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo.

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University of California - San Diego landed the #16 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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#17

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

With a ranking of #17, Johns Hopkins University did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins University Report

#18

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN

University of Notre Dame landed the #18 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree civil engineering programs. Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Notre Dame.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Notre Dame

With a ranking of #19, University of California - Berkeley did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public school located in the midsize city of Berkeley.

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#20

Manhattan College

Riverdale, NY

Manhattan College ranked #20 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Riverdale, Manhattan is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Manhattan College

#21

Loyola Marymount University

Los Angeles, CA

Loyola Marymount University ranked #21 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Loyola Marymount University Report

With a ranking of #22, Columbia University in the City of New York did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their master’s degree. Located in the city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit college with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Columbia University in the City of New York Report

#23

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI

Michigan State University ranked #23 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. Located in the small city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Michigan State University Report

University of Washington - Seattle Campus landed the #24 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public college with a very large student population.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Washington - Seattle Campus

The University of Texas at Austin ranked #25 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Master’s Degree Schools list. UT Austin is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Austin.

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Rest of the Top Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools

#26

University of Dayton

Dayton, OH
#27

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA
#28

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, VA

Honorable Mentions

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Civil Engineering Master's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
29 Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus Atlanta, GA
30 New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ
31 San Jose State University San Jose, CA
32 University of California - Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
33 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
34 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA
35 Tufts University Medford, MA
36 University of Nebraska - Lincoln Lincoln, NE
37 Texas A&M University - College Station College Station, TX

Civil Engineering by Region

View the Best Civil Engineering Master'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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