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2025 Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

63 Colleges in the United States
1,883 Doctor's Degrees
$114,201 Avg Early-Career Salary
Ranked #17 in popularity, mechanical engineering is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

College Factual reviewed 63 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for doctor's degree seekers in the field of mechanical engineering. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,883 doctor's degrees in mechanical engineering during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

Choosing a Great Mechanical Engineering School for Your Doctor's Degree

Best Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools The me doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality me program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

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

One Size Does Not Fit All

Rankings by Location Check Out Other Locales
More ME Rankings Other Ranking Categories

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 Mechanical Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Mechanical Engineering in the United States

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

12 Top Schools for a Doctorate in ME

1
Stanford crest
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering has to look into Stanford University. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford.

Mechanical Engineering doctor's degree recipients from Stanford University earn a boost of around $29,557 above the average income of mechanical engineering graduates.

More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University

2
54 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat Massachusetts Institute of Technology if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3
41 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat University of California - Berkeley if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of California - Berkeley

4
28 Annual Graduates

Carnegie Mellon University is a great decision for individuals interested in a doctor's degree in mechanical engineering. Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University

5
23 Annual Graduates

Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Ithaca.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Cornell University

6
48 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

7
18 Annual Graduates

Johns Hopkins is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Baltimore.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University

8
Duke crest
Duke University
Durham, NC
23 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Duke University

9

Purdue is a very large public university located in the city of West Lafayette.

Doctorate recipients from the mechanical engineering major at Purdue University - Main Campus make $5,346 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Purdue University - Main Campus

10
18 Annual Graduates

Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University

11
48 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University - College Station

12
57 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Atlanta, Georgia Tech is a public school with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus

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
13 Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY
14 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
15 University of Maryland - College Park College Park, MD

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
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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

ME Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
General Mechanical Engineering 1,883

Majors Similar to ME

Related Major Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering 2,212
Biomedical Engineering 1,265
Civil Engineering 1,230
Chemical Engineering 1,186
Materials Engineering 770
General Engineering 514
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering 442
Computer Engineering 424
Industrial Engineering 408
Other Engineering 185

Notes and References

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