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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.

$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.

Top 15 chemical engineering programs by median completer earnings

Chemical Engineering bachelor's (CIP 14.07) · higher is higher early-career pay

median earnings

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

Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard Field of Study As of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

The full top 100

# School Name StateMedian EarningsMedian DebtCompleters
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.