Compiled by PlainCollege, College outcomes data analysis
160
Schools
Doctoral
Credential Level
$157,404
National Avg Earnings
What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering is tracked across 160 U.S. postsecondary institutions in the College Scorecard field-of-study file, which links CIP code classifications from IPEDS to Treasury earnings records. This profile covers the doctoral credential level specifically, because the Department of Education reports program-level outcomes separately for associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral awards. The CIP (Classification of Instructional Programs) taxonomy lets analysts roll up specialties into broader families, which is why earnings medians across schools can be compared on a common basis.
Across all reporting institutions, the mean of school-level medians is $157,404, calculated from 3 schools with published earnings data. The top-reporting institution in this program is Stanford University at $218,808. These numbers reflect Treasury-derived wages, deferred compensation, and positive self-employment earnings four years after completion for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled.
Variation across schools matters more than a single national figure. Completer counts and earnings cohort counts are distinct source fields, so the displayed completer count should not be assumed to be the earnings denominator. PlainCollege's debt-to-earnings ratio divides median federal debt by annual median earnings as a descriptive comparison; it is not the Department's formal gainful-employment test. Use the school-by-school table to compare reported outcomes while accounting for cohort size, suppression, program mix, and location.
Purdue University-Main Campus accounts for 15.2% of all Mechanical Engineering doctoral credential graduates
That concentration — well above the 5% national median for largest-entity share means Mechanical Engineering-wide averages can mask meaningful variation outside the largest entity, though the remaining entities individually still carry a share worth reading on their own. That school produced 71 graduates in the most recent cohort, anchoring a meaningful slice of national supply for this field. Even a notable-but-not-dominant share like this is enough to skew a simple Mechanical Engineering-wide average away from what a typical smaller entity looks like.
Awards and earnings come from different reference periods, so they are not a count and an
average of the same people. Awards is the number of credentials the school reported for the
latest IPEDS year; median earnings is measured four years after completion, for a separate
pooled cohort of earlier graduates. A school can therefore report zero awards in the latest
year and still have earnings on record. The earnings figure is not the awards figure’s
average, and the awards count is not the earnings sample size. Schools are ranked on the
four-year earnings figure only, so every row is compared on the same basis.
Compare beyond the CIP family
Nationwide peers by school count & four-year earnings
Cross-field programs at the same credential level nearest Mechanical Engineering on school-count breadth
(160 schools) and mean four-year median earnings ($157,404).
Peers exclude the same two-digit CIP family so neighborhoods are not CIP-containment siblings.
School-count peers include Psychology, General, Curriculum and Instruction, Chemistry. Earnings peers include Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing, Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration, Educational Administration and Supervision.
Neighborhoods are forced disjoint so each axis surfaces a different set of programs.
Similar school count
Nearest programs (≥50 schools) by absolute school-count breadth, outside this CIP family.
How much do Mechanical Engineering graduates earn? ▼
Mechanical Engineering graduates earn $157,404 on average four years after completion, across the 3 of 160 schools that report earnings for this program.
Which school's Mechanical Engineering graduates earn the most? ▼
Stanford University has the highest reported median earnings for Mechanical Engineering graduates at $218,808, measured four years after completion in College Scorecard data. This reflects what graduates went on to earn, which depends heavily on who the school admits and which employers recruit there. It is not a figure the school pays.
What credential do you get in Mechanical Engineering? ▼
Mechanical Engineering programs typically award a Doctoral credential. Earnings vary by school and credential level.
Top Schools for Mechanical Engineering
Closest schools offering this program – compare earnings side by side
Earnings data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Field of Study file retrieved in March 2026. The program metric displayed here represents federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled four years after credential completion, using Treasury-derived records published through the Scorecard. Completer counts and debt figures come from the same field-of-study snapshot; the Department refreshes components on schedules documented in its changelog, not one fixed annual date.