A degree in industrial engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #87 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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 95 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for industrial engineering students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 8,087 degrees in industrial engineering during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The ie program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Industrial Engineering rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for industrial engineering schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each 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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Industrial Engineering Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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 Industrial Engineering in the United States
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the ie degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Any student pursuing a degree in industrial engineering needs to take a look at Northwestern University. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were roughly 79 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering degree program at Northwestern University make $13,100 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus is a great decision for students pursuing a degree in industrial engineering. Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the large city of Atlanta. A Best Colleges rank of #19 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Georgia Tech is a great school overall.
There were roughly 459 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Georgia Tech in the most recent data year. Those industrial engineering students who get their degree from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus receive $11,115 more than the average ie student.
Any student pursuing a degree in industrial engineering needs to look into Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York. A Best Colleges rank of #15 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Columbia is a great university overall.
There were about 104 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent data year.
Texas A&M University - College Station is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in industrial engineering. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of College Station. A Best Colleges rank of #42 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Texas A&M College Station is a great university overall.
There were roughly 391 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Texas A&M College Station in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the ie program make around $76,382 in the first couple years of their career.
Located in the midsize 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 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were about 247 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering degree program at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor make $11,772 more than the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 83 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering major at University of Southern California make $11,096 above the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the midsize suburb of Clemson, Clemson is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 45 colleges for overall quality in the state of South Carolina.
There were approximately 352 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Clemson in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering degree program at Clemson University get $13,984 above the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Virginia Tech is a fairly 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 approximately 231 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Virginia Tech in the most recent year we have data available. Those industrial engineering students who get their degree from Virginia Tech earn $5,726 more than the standard ie student.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 41 schools for overall quality in the state of Indiana.
There were approximately 331 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent data year. Those industrial engineering students who get their degree from Purdue University - Main Campus earn $4,668 more than the standard ie grad.
Lehigh is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Bethlehem. This university ranks 4th out of 103 schools for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were about 66 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Lehigh in the most recent data year. Industrial Engineering degree recipients from Lehigh University receive an earnings boost of approximately $4,431 over the average income of industrial engineering graduates.
UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the city of Madison. A Best Colleges rank of #40 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UW - Madison is a great university overall.
There were about 159 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at UW - Madison in the most recent year we have data available. Those industrial engineering students who get their degree from University of Wisconsin - Madison earn $3,724 more than the standard ie student.
Located in the city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 1st out of 91 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 181 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Ohio State in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering major at Ohio State University - Main Campus earn $4,165 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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 approximately 160 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Iowa State in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering program at Iowa State University earn $5,926 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
UMN Twin Cities is a very large public university located in the large city of Minneapolis. This university ranks 1st out of 52 colleges for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.
There were roughly 97 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at UMN Twin Cities in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the ie program state that they receive average early career income of $73,777.
UW Seattle is a very large public university located in the large city of Seattle. A Best Colleges rank of #44 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UW Seattle is a great university overall.
There were roughly 70 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at UW Seattle in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering degree program at University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $22,387 more than the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 4th out of 93 colleges for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were about 133 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at NC State in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering program at North Carolina State University get $4,344 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were about 109 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the ie program make around $78,313 in their early career salary.
Located in the small city of Troy, RPI is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population. This school ranks 6th out of 136 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were approximately 57 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at RPI in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, ie degree recipients generally make about $74,787 in their early careers.
Pitt is a fairly large public university located in the city of Pittsburgh. This university ranks 6th out of 103 colleges for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were approximately 93 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Pitt in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the ie program state that they receive average early career income of $76,707.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Industrial 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).
The ie program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Industrial Engineering rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for industrial engineering schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
