2023 Best Value Colleges for Petroleum Engineering in the Southeast Region (With Aid)

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 1,256 people earned their degree in petroleum engineering, making the major the 223rd most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, petroleum engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $83,917 and had an average of $25,780 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Southeast region, there were 193 petroleum engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $73,195 and $27,233 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer a degree in petroleum engineering. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great petroleum 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 petroleum engineering program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Petroleum Engineering Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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 Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid

The colleges and universities below are the best for southeast region petroleum engineering students with aid.

Top 4 Best Value Colleges for Petroleum Engineering in the Southeast Region (With Aid)

1

West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia

#3 in overall quality

$13,355 Average Net Price

$46,248 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend West Virginia University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid list. West Virginia University is a large school located in Morgantown, West Virginia that handed out 74 ’s petroleum engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

WVU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region” list. The yearly cost to attend WVU is $13,355 for southeast region petroleum engineering students with aid.

Full West Virginia University Petroleum Engineering Report

2

Mississippi State University
Mississippi State, Mississippi

#2 in overall quality

$16,122 Average Net Price

$41,190 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, Mississippi State University landed the #2 spot on the list. This large school is located in Mississippi State, Mississippi, and it awarded 15 ’s petroleum engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

Mississippi State also made our “Best Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region” list, coming in at #2. It costs about $16,122 for Southeast Region Petroleum Engineering students with aid per year to attend Mississippi State University.

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

Full Mississippi State University Petroleum Engineering Report

3

Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

#1 in overall quality

$17,811 Average Net Price

$43,255 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid. Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College is a large public school situated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It awarded 74 ’s petroleum engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

Louisiana State University did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region” list. The yearly cost to attend Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College is $17,811 for Southeast Region Petroleum Engineering students with aid.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 4.0% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full Louisiana State University Petroleum Engineering Report

4

University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana

#4 in overall quality

$13,094 Average Net Price

$41,411 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Louisiana at Lafayette landed the #4 spot on the list. University of Louisiana at Lafayette is a fairly large public school situated in Lafayette, Louisiana. It awarded 30 ’s petroleum engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our southeast region petroleum engineering students with aid list, UL Lafayette has also earned the #4 rank in our “Best Petroleum Engineering Schools in the Southeast Region” ranking. It costs about $13,094 for southeast region petroleum engineering students with aid per year to attend University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Full UL Lafayette Petroleum Engineering Report

• Best Value Colleges for Petroleum Engineering (With Aid)

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.