2024 Best Environmental Engineering Master's Degree Schools

Environmental Engineering is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #133 most popular master's degree program in the country. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 67 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for environmental engineering students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 746 master's degrees in environmental engineering to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Environmental Engineering School for Your Master's Degree

The environmental engineering master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various 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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master'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 many resources a school devotes to environmental engineering students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other environmental engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• 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 much debt environmental engineering students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized environmental engineering related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for environmental engineering students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The environmental engineering school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Environmental Engineering Master's Degree Schools.

 

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Environmental Engineering in the United States

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in environmental engineering. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

10 Top Schools for a Master's in Environmental Engineering

1

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

54 Annual Graduates

$74,419 Median Starting Salary

Johns Hopkins University is a great choice for students interested in a master's degree in environmental engineering. Located in the city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Master's recipients from the environmental engineering program at Johns Hopkins University earn $3,585 more than the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University

2

Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY

21 Annual Graduates

Columbia University in the City of New York is a great option for students pursuing a master's degree in environmental engineering. Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Columbia University in the City of New York

3

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA

5 Annual Graduates

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in environmental engineering. MIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Cambridge.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

4

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

29 Annual Graduates

University of Southern California is a wonderful option for individuals interested in a master's degree in environmental engineering. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from University of Southern California

5

Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus
Atlanta, GA

23 Annual Graduates

Georgia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Atlanta.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus

6

Rice University
Houston, TX

Located in the city of Houston, Rice is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Rice University

7

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

39 Annual Graduates

$70,029 Median Starting Salary

UF is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville.

Master's students who receive their degree from the environmental engineering program make around $70,029 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from University of Florida

8

Purdue University - Main Campus
West Lafayette, IN

17 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Purdue University - Main Campus

9

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

31 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

10

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

1 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in environmental engineering from Vanderbilt University

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 Environmental Engineering Master's Degree Schools award.

Rank	College	Location
11	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Champaign, IL
12	The University of Texas at Austin	Austin, TX
13	Colorado School of Mines	Golden, CO
14	Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh, PA
15	University of Connecticut	Storrs, CT
16	Clemson University	Clemson, SC

Environmental Engineering by Region

View the Best Environmental 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
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Environmental Engineering

Environmental Engineering is one of 41 different types of Engineering programs to choose from.

Environmental Engineering Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Environmental Engineering	746

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering	8,658
Mechanical Engineering	7,218
Computer Engineering	5,020
Civil Engineering	4,884
Biomedical Engineering	3,089
General Engineering	2,969
Industrial Engineering	2,483
Systems Engineering	2,186
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	1,880
Chemical Engineering	1,558

Notes and References

• 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 U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Alesia Goosic. More about our data sources and methodologies.