Program ranking · CIP 14.07 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Chemical Engineering

Using U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data retrieved March-July 2026, these colleges rank highest on median earnings for Chemical Engineering (CIP 14.07) bachelor's completers. Rankings use earnings only - not prestige, selectivity, or editorial judgment - and require at least 25 completers so tiny suppressed cohorts do not dominate the list.

Compiled by PlainCollege , College outcomes data analysis

$122,093
Highest chemical engineering earnings: 100
Colleges ranked: $92,741
#100 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $92,741 median earnings for Chemical Engineering bachelor's (CIP 14.07) completers. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads at $122,093.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.

$122,093
#1 - Massachusetts Institute of: $92,741
#100 - the cutoff to make this list: 25+
completers required per school: 187
US schools offering this CIP

Earnings are field-of-study medians for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled; see methodology for horizon and lag details.

Massachusetts Institute …

$122,093
Vanderbilt University

$121,641
University of California…

$121,027
Cornell University

$116,165
Lafayette College

$115,726
The University of Texas at

$115,423
Louisiana State Universi…

$114,226
University of Notre Dame

$113,614
Rice University

$113,605
University of California…

$113,317
Texas A&M University-Col…

$111,073
Northwestern University

$111,040
Carnegie Mellon University

$110,378
University of Houston

$110,184
University of Pennsylvania

$109,884

What this shows Chemical-engineering medians track process, materials, and energy employers - debt still matters when plant-cycle hiring swings pay bands.

The full top 100

#	School Name	State	Median Earnings	Median Debt	Completers
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	MA	$122,093	$17,000	48
2	Vanderbilt University	TN	$121,641	-	26
3	University of California-Berkeley	CA	$121,027	$18,155	104
4	Cornell University	NY	$116,165	$14,361	47
5	Lafayette College	PA	$115,726	$17,000	31
6	The University of Texas at Austin	TX	$115,423	$19,672	131
7	Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College	LA	$114,226	$20,500	82
8	University of Notre Dame	IN	$113,614	$16,750	78
9	Rice University	TX	$113,605	$13,178	25
10	University of California-Santa Barbara	CA	$113,317	$14,937	53
11	Texas A&M University-College Station	TX	$111,073	$18,017	246
12	Northwestern University	IL	$111,040	$16,500	34
13	Carnegie Mellon University	PA	$110,378	$23,125	44
14	University of Houston	TX	$110,184	$19,228	74
15	University of Pennsylvania	PA	$109,884	$20,500	28
16	University of Florida	FL	$109,607	$19,600	106
17	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	WA	$109,551	$17,054	75
18	North Carolina A & T State University	NC	$109,537	$23,272	33
19	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	MI	$109,405	$20,964	73
20	University of California-Los Angeles	CA	$108,066	$17,000	79
21	Washington University in St Louis	MO	$107,843	-	30
22	Northeastern University	MA	$107,767	$26,623	86
23	University of Mississippi	MS	$107,548	$22,288	26
24	Auburn University	AL	$106,726	$22,604	93
25	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	VA	$106,011	$24,875	71
26	University of Virginia-Main Campus	VA	$105,724	$17,733	42
27	North Carolina State University at Raleigh	NC	$104,705	$21,155	161
28	Purdue University-Main Campus	IN	$104,514	$21,500	164
29	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	IL	$104,317	$21,470	155
30	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	GA	$104,104	$26,250	183
31	University of Delaware	DE	$103,910	$26,000	94
32	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	PA	$103,728	$26,706	172
33	Villanova University	PA	$103,601	$27,000	50
34	University of Rhode Island	RI	$103,525	$26,816	28
35	California State Polytechnic University-Pomona	CA	$102,849	$21,322	91
36	University of California-Davis	CA	$102,649	$15,750	62
37	Michigan State University	MI	$102,223	$25,314	102
38	University of Maryland-College Park	MD	$102,149	$22,281	63
39	University of Louisiana at Lafayette	LA	$102,119	$20,927	45
40	University of Arizona	AZ	$101,815	$21,000	54
41	Brigham Young University	UT	$101,726	$14,680	68
42	Lehigh University	PA	$101,720	$27,000	39
43	University of Wisconsin-Madison	WI	$101,676	$21,638	103
44	University of Louisville	KY	$101,068	$20,500	47
45	Lamar University	TX	$101,018	$19,500	46
46	The University of Alabama	AL	$100,857	$22,625	159
47	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	NJ	$100,729	$21,500	100
48	University of Southern California	CA	$100,646	$13,000	36
49	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	MA	$100,199	$27,000	92
50	Texas Tech University	TX	$99,747	$27,232	96
51	Bucknell University	PA	$99,536	$27,000	25
52	Washington State University	WA	$99,506	$22,500	25
53	Drexel University	PA	$99,338	$29,833	65
54	Ohio State University-Main Campus	OH	$98,851	$20,780	186
55	Stevens Institute of Technology	NJ	$98,782	$26,686	47
56	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	NY	$98,679	$24,985	63
57	Oklahoma State University-Main Campus	OK	$98,557	$24,500	46
58	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology	IN	$98,341	$24,499	43
59	University of South Carolina-Columbia	SC	$98,244	$26,241	56
60	Louisiana Tech University	LA	$98,240	$18,342	28
61	University of Utah	UT	$98,215	$19,000	68
62	University of Kentucky	KY	$98,003	$22,950	68
63	University of Massachusetts-Amherst	MA	$97,990	$27,000	60
64	Texas A&M University-Kingsville	TX	$97,811	$22,900	29
65	Virginia Commonwealth University	VA	$97,781	$27,000	52
66	University of California-Irvine	CA	$97,656	$18,250	82
67	New Jersey Institute of Technology	NJ	$97,371	$21,701	71
68	University of Iowa	IA	$97,329	$26,990	40
69	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	PA	$97,324	$24,750	94
70	Colorado State University-Fort Collins	CO	$97,271	$20,549	75
71	University of Cincinnati-Main Campus	OH	$97,220	$21,083	124
72	University of Dayton	OH	$97,184	$22,999	46
73	University of New Mexico-Main Campus	NM	$96,810	$19,775	47
74	University of California-San Diego	CA	$96,798	$18,500	129
75	Case Western Reserve University	OH	$96,533	$23,250	46
76	West Virginia University	WV	$96,503	$22,354	34
77	Manhattan University	NY	$96,134	$26,026	25
78	Miami University-Oxford	OH	$96,025	$20,500	30
79	University of Missouri-Columbia	MO	$95,989	$25,804	39
80	Mississippi State University	MS	$95,968	$22,500	73
81	University of Colorado Boulder	CO	$95,780	$23,650	47
82	Rowan University	NJ	$95,769	$23,125	36
83	University at Buffalo	NY	$95,424	$21,512	53
84	University of Massachusetts-Lowell	MA	$94,972	$26,825	59
85	University of Maine	ME	$94,964	$19,750	34
86	Missouri University of Science and Technology	MO	$94,686	$23,750	86
87	Johns Hopkins University	MD	$94,671	$14,559	73
88	Rochester Institute of Technology	NY	$94,641	$30,750	48
89	Colorado School of Mines	CO	$94,598	$26,798	155
90	Michigan Technological University	MI	$94,478	$23,875	88
91	University of South Florida	FL	$94,387	$23,000	111
92	University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus	OK	$94,291	$24,013	61
93	University of Toledo	OH	$94,065	$25,750	43
94	University of Arkansas	AR	$93,641	$20,500	65
95	Clarkson University	NY	$93,614	$27,000	45
96	University of Kansas	KS	$93,391	$20,500	62
97	Arizona State University Campus Immersion	AZ	$93,264	$20,500	129
98	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	MN	$92,946	$23,418	86
99	Iowa State University	IA	$92,773	$20,136	123
100	Oregon State University	OR	$92,741	$24,000	76

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Chemical Engineering (CIP 14.07) bachelor's completers. Only operating schools with at least 25 completers and a published median are included. Ties break toward larger completer cohorts. For the full program profile - including every reporting school and national distribution - see Chemical Engineering (bachelor's). Methodology lives on our methodology page.

Caveats and limitations

"Best" here means highest reported median earnings for the stated CIP scope - not teaching quality, licensure pass rates, clinical placement strength, or fit for any one student. This list covers Chemical Engineering (CIP 14.07) bachelor's programs - chemistry (CIP 40.05) and biomedical engineering (CIP 14.05) are ranked separately.

Figures cover federally aided completers only, use Treasury-linked earnings, and describe a lagged cohort. Regional pay scales and graduate-school paths both move the median without proving a causal school effect.

This ranking is for informational purposes only and does not constitute academic or career advice. Earnings do not predict any individual graduate's outcome.

Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from College Scorecard field-of-study data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals.