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Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

2023 Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

138 Colleges
$103,564 Avg Salary

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

In 2020-2021, 46,178 people earned a degree or certificate in mechanical engineering, making the major the #21 most popular in the United States.

With all the programs available today, it can be tough to choose which one is the best for you. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Course Advisor has developed this Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. This report analyzed 138 schools in the United States to see which ones offered the best doctor's degree programs 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 Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools in the United States

The colleges and universities below are the best for ME majors pursuing a doctor's degree.

Top 15% Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

Our analysis found Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be the best school for mechanical engineering students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in the United States. MIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Cambridge.

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#2

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Notre Dame. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

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#3

Duke University

Durham, NC

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Duke University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

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#4

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA

A rank of #4 on this year’s list means University of Pennsylvania is a great place for mechanical engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit college with a very large student population.

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#5

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Northwestern University. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit college with a very large student population.

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#6

Rice University

Houston, TX

Rice University ranked #6 on this year’s Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Houston, Rice is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

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#7

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN

Vanderbilt University came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

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The University of Texas at Austin did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for mechanical engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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Michigan Technological University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Michigan Tech is a moderately-sized public school located in the remote town of Houghton.

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University of Michigan - Ann Arbor landed the #10 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree mechanical engineering programs. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public school with a very large student population.

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#11

Purdue University - Main Campus

West Lafayette, IN

Purdue University - Main Campus did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for mechanical engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #11 on the list. Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public college with a very large student population.

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#12

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Cornell University came in at #12 in this year’s edition of the Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.

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Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus landed the #13 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree mechanical engineering programs. Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the city of Atlanta.

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University of California - Berkeley came in at #14 in this year’s edition of the Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the midsize city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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#15

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Stanford University ranked #15 on this year’s Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Stanford.

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#16

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA

Carnegie Mellon University ranked #16 on this year’s Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Carnegie Mellon is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Pittsburgh.

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With a ranking of #17, University of Wisconsin - Madison did quite well on this year’s best schools for mechanical engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public school with a very large student population.

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#18

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

Princeton University landed the #18 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree mechanical engineering programs. Princeton is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Princeton.

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#19

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, VA

Virginia Tech did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for mechanical engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #19 on the list. Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Blacksburg.

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Texas A&M University - College Station landed the #20 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree mechanical engineering programs. Texas A&M College Station is a very large public school located in the midsize city of College Station.

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Additional Noteworthy Schools

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

Rank College Location
21 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
22 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
23 Santa Clara University Santa Clara, CA
24 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA
25 Washington University in St Louis Saint Louis, MO
26 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
27 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA

Mechanical Engineering by Region

View the Best Mechanical 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

One of 40 majors within the area of study, mechanical engineering has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering 28,844
Civil Engineering 21,388
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 Michel Villeneuve.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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