2022 Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Mechanical Engineering is the 20th most popular major in the country with 47,598 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, mechanical engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $64,495 and had an average of $23,104 in loans still to pay off.

Across North Carolina, there were 884 mechanical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $68,260 and $20,586 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 669 mechanical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $35,192 and $24,368 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina” ranking looked at 4 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great mechanical engineering programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the mechanical engineering program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Mechanical Engineering Schools

The me 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 “Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina”.

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. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina.

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in North Carolina

#1

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, North Carolina

#2 in overall quality

$16,458 Average Net Price

$65,980 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend North Carolina State University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina. North Carolina State University is a large school located in Raleigh, North Carolina that handed out 288 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2019-2020.

NC State not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in North Carolina” list. The estimated yearly cost for NC State is $16,458 for north carolina bachelor’s degree me students.

With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The student loan default rate at the school is 2.9%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University

#2

North Carolina A & T State University

Greensboro, North Carolina

#4 in overall quality

$10,274 Average Net Price

$69,338 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend North Carolina A & T State University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina. This fairly large school is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it awarded 67 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at NC A&T, the school also landed the #4 spot in our “Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in North Carolina” ranking. It costs about $10,274 for north carolina bachelor’s degree me students per year to attend North Carolina A & T State University.

Full NC A&T Mechanical Engineering Report

#3

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Charlotte, North Carolina

#3 in overall quality

$16,529 Average Net Price

$64,299 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina. UNC Charlotte is a large school located in Charlotte, North Carolina that handed out 198 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2019-2020.

UNC Charlotte also made our “Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in North Carolina” list, coming in at #3. It costs about $16,529 for North Carolina Bachelor’s Degree ME students per year to attend University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

With a freshman retention rate of 85%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at University of North Carolina at Charlotte

#4

Duke University

Durham, North Carolina

#1 in overall quality

$27,020 Average Net Price

$80,292 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value ME Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina that were part of this year’s ranking, Duke University landed the #4 spot on the list. Located in Durham, North Carolina, this fairly large private not-for-profit school handed out 91 degrees to qualified bachelors’s ME students in 2019-2020.

Duke also took the #1 spot in our “Best Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in North Carolina” ranking. It costs about $27,020 for North Carolina Bachelor’s Degree ME students per year to attend Duke University.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 97%. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 0.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full Duke Mechanical Engineering Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in the Southeast Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Michel Villeneuve.

Featured Engineering Schools

Request Info

Southern New Hampshire University You have goals. Southern New Hampshire University can help you get there. Whether you need a bachelor's degree to get into a career or want a master's degree to move up in your current career, SNHU has an online program for you. Find your degree from over 200 online programs ... Learn More >