2025 Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Schools
70Colleges in the United States
8,671Aerospace Engineering Degrees Awarded
$80,614Avg Early-Career Salary
A degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #94 out of 395 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 70 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 8,671 degrees in aerospace & aeronautical engineering to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering School
The aerospace engineering program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering rankings. For our Best Overall Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Rankings by Degree Level
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of aerospace engineering degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. MIT is a large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Cambridge. A Best Colleges rank of #1 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means MIT is a great school overall.
There were approximately 137 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at MIT in the most recent data year.
Johns Hopkins University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. Located in the city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #6 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Johns Hopkins is a great university overall.
There were roughly 91 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Johns Hopkins in the most recent year we have data available.
It is hard to beat Stanford University if you wish to pursue a degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #10 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Stanford is a great university overall.
There were about 83 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Stanford in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the aerospace & aeronautical engineering program at Stanford University make $31,146 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
University of Southern California is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 170 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the aerospace & aeronautical engineering program at University of Southern California get $23,898 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the city of Atlanta. A Best Colleges rank of #19 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Georgia Tech is a great school overall.
There were roughly 403 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Georgia Tech in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the aerospace & aeronautical engineering major at Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus make $5,103 above the standard graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Virginia Tech is a very large public school located in the city of Blacksburg. This school ranks 2nd out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were roughly 265 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Virginia Tech in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the aerospace engineering program state that they receive average early career earnings of $76,856.
Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #22 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were roughly 294 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent data year. Those aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who get their degree from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor receive $8,182 more than the typical aerospace engineering student.
Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 41 colleges for overall quality in the state of Indiana.
There were about 539 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the aerospace engineering program make an average of $82,482 for their early career.
UIUC is a very large public university located in the small city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 168 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the aerospace & aeronautical engineering program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $2,559 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
UT Austin is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Austin. This university ranks 2nd out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were roughly 129 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the aerospace engineering program make around $81,022 in their early career salary.
Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #37 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UMCP is a great university overall.
There were roughly 165 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at UMCP in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the aerospace engineering program state that they receive average early career income of $78,631.
Texas A&M College Station is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of College Station. This university ranks 1st out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 253 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Texas A&M College Station in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the aerospace engineering program state that they receive average early career income of $74,524.
Located in the city of Troy, RPI is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population. This school ranks 6th out of 136 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were roughly 146 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at RPI in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the aerospace engineering program state that they receive average early career wages of $73,213.
Iowa State is a very large public university located in the small city of Ames. This university ranks 2nd out of 37 schools for overall quality in the state of Iowa.
There were about 180 aerospace & aeronautical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Iowa State in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the aerospace engineering program earn around $75,036 for their early career.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering Schools award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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 Ian3055.
The aerospace engineering program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering rankings. For our Best Overall Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
