If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #51 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 155 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for chemical engineering students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 9,433 bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great Chemical Engineering School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of chemical engineering for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality chem eng program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on chemical engineering students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of chemical engineering students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for chemical engineering to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized chemical engineering related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for chemical engineering students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Chemical Engineering in the United States
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for chemical engineering students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering needs to check out Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT is a large private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Massachusetts Institute of Technology earn a boost of approximately $7,788 over the typical income of chemical engineering majors.
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is a good choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Located in the medium-sized city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor receive $7,200 more than the standard chem eng student.
It's hard to beat Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the large city of Atlanta.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus make $13,496 more than the typical chem eng graduate.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering has to take a look at Texas A&M University - College Station. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of College Station.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University - College Station receive $13,825 more than the standard chem eng graduate.
UT Austin is a fairly large public university located in the city of Austin.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering program at The University of Texas at Austin earn $15,014 more than the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
UIUC is a very large public university located in the small city of Champaign.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn a boost of about $5,089 above the typical earnings of chemical engineering graduates.
Located in the midsize city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley earn a boost of approximately $9,202 over the average earnings of chemical engineering graduates.
Located in the city of Boston, Northeastern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Northeastern University earn a boost of around $9,529 over the average earnings of chemical engineering graduates.
Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Notre Dame.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Notre Dame earn a boost of around $11,026 above the typical earnings of chemical engineering majors.
Located in the city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering degree program at Cornell University earn $13,227 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
UW - Madison is a very large public university located in the city of Madison.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Madison receive an earnings boost of about $13,594 above the average earnings of chemical engineering graduates.
Lehigh is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Bethlehem.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering program at Lehigh University get $10,084 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Purdue University - Main Campus receive $8,754 more than the typical chem eng student.
Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from Northwestern University get an earnings boost of about $8,358 above the average income of chemical engineering majors.
UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering degree program at University of Pennsylvania earn $9,370 above the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Ohio State University - Main Campus receive $5,104 more than the average chem eng grad.
Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemical engineering degree program at North Carolina State University make $9,141 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Troy, RPI is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.
Those chemical engineering students who get their bachelor's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute make $5,912 more than the standard chem eng student.
UF is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Gainesville.
Chemical Engineering bachelor's degree recipients from University of Florida get an earnings boost of around $14,813 over the average income of chemical engineering graduates.
Here are some additional great schools for Chemical Engineering students that almost earned our Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor's Degree 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).
Your choice of chemical engineering for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality chem eng program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
