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Best Materials Engineering Schools

2023 Best Materials Engineering Schools

100 Colleges
$65,007 Avg Salary
$23,030 Avg Student Debt

Finding the Best Materials Engineering School for You

Materials Engineering is the #158 most popular major in the country with 3,415 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Alternatively, you may choose a trade school that prepares you to enter the workforce with knowledge in a specific field.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Course Advisor has developed this Best Materials Engineering Schools ranking. Our analysis looked at 100 schools in the United States to see which programs offered the best educational experiences for students.

View our full ranking methodology.

2023 Best Materials Engineering Schools in the United States

The following schools top our list of the Best Materials Engineering Colleges.

Top 15% Best Materials Engineering Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Massachusetts Institute of Technology the best school in the United States for materials engineering students. 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

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

Out of the 100 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Northwestern University landed the # 2 spot on the list. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Evanston.

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#3

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

The excellent programs at Cornell University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best materials engineering schools in the United States. Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Ithaca.

After completing their degree, materials engineering graduates from Cornell carry an average student debtload of $15,500.

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#4

University of Dayton

Dayton, OH

The excellent programs at University of Dayton helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best materials engineering schools in the United States. UDayton is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Dayton.

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The excellent programs at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best materials engineering schools in the United States. U-M is a very large public school located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor.

The average amount in student loans that materials engineering majors at U-M take out is $18,810.

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#6

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Stanford University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best materials engineering programs. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

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#7

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN

With a ranking of #7, University of Notre Dame did quite well on this year’s best schools for materials engineering students. Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Notre Dame.

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Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Materials Engineering Schools ranking. Located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a public college with a fairly large student population.

On average, materials engineering graduates from Georgia Tech take out $21,375 in student loans while working on their degree.

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University of Virginia - Main Campus landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best materials engineering programs. Located in the suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public college with a very large student population.

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#10

Purdue University - Main Campus

West Lafayette, IN

Purdue University - Main Campus came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Materials Engineering Schools ranking. Purdue is a very large public school located in the city of West Lafayette.

On average, materials engineering graduates from Purdue take out $18,125 in student loans while working on their degree.

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#11

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL

With a ranking of #11, University of Florida did quite well on this year’s best schools for materials engineering students. UF is a very large public school located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville.

Materials Engineering majors at UF take out an average of $14,000 in student loans while working on their egree.

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With a ranking of #12, The University of Texas at Austin did quite well on this year’s best schools for materials engineering students. UT Austin is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Austin.

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#13

Duke University

Durham, NC

With a ranking of #13, Duke University did quite well on this year’s best schools for materials engineering students. Duke is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Durham.

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#14

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA

University of Pennsylvania did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best schools for materials engineering students. It came in at #14 on the list. UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Philadelphia.

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#15

Lehigh University

Bethlehem, PA

Lehigh University landed the #15 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best materials engineering programs. Lehigh is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Bethlehem.

Materials Engineering majors at Lehigh take out an average of $26,000 in student loans while working on their egree.

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Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional great schools for Materials Engineering students that almost earned our Best Materials Engineering Schools award.

Rank College Location
16 University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI
17 Villanova University Villanova, PA
18 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
19 Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI
20 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA

Materials Engineering by Region

View the Best Materials Engineering Schools for a specific region near you.

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

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

Related Major Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering 46,178
Electrical Engineering 28,844
Civil Engineering 21,388
Computer Engineering 17,987
Chemical Engineering 12,917

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 Panoramedia.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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