2023 Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (Income $0-$30k) in Virginia

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

Systems Engineering is the 160th most popular major in the country with 3,904 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, systems engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $89,736 and had an average of $21,799 in loans still to pay off.

Across Virginia, there were 227 systems engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $89,110 and $21,627 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in systems engineering. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent systems engineering programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the systems engineering program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Systems Engineering Schools

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 Value Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia For Those Making $0-$30k” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our 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 Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia For Those Making $0-$30k

The colleges and universities below are the best for virginia systems engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (Income $0-$30k) in Virginia

1

University of Virginia - Main Campus
Charlottesville, Virginia

#1 in overall quality

$12,476 Average Net Price

$58,809 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Virginia - Main Campus landed the #1 spot on the list. University of Virginia - Main Campus is a public institution located in Charlottesville, Virginia. The school has a large population, and it awarded 167 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

University of Virginia not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia” list. The yearly cost to attend University of Virginia is $12,476 for Virginia Systems Engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 97%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Systems Engineering at University of Virginia - Main Campus

2

George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

#2 in overall quality

$14,781 Average Net Price

$56,435 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, George Mason University landed the #2 spot on the list. George Mason University is a public institution located in Fairfax, Virginia. The school has a large population, and it awarded 47 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

GMU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in Virginia” list. The estimated yearly cost for George Mason University is $14,781 for Virginia Systems Engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Systems Engineering at George Mason University

• Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (Income $0-$30k) in the Southeast Region
• Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (Income $0-$30k)

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 luis gomes.