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Program ranking · CIP 14.08 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Civil 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 Civil Engineering (CIP 14.08) 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.

$108,548
Highest civil engineering earnings
100
Colleges ranked
$84,340
#100 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $84,340 median earnings for Civil Engineering bachelor's (CIP 14.08) completers. University of California-Berkeley leads at $108,548.

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

$108,548
#1 - University of California-Berkeley
$84,340
#100 - the cutoff to make this list
25+
completers required per school
310
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 civil engineering programs by median completer earnings

Civil Engineering bachelor's (CIP 14.08) · higher is higher early-career pay

median earnings

What this shows Civil-engineering medians follow infrastructure and regional construction cycles - compare debt and completer counts before treating pay as program quality.

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 University of California-Berkeley CA $108,548 $14,342 106
2 University of Southern California CA $106,308 $8,125 34
3 Carnegie Mellon University PA $105,199 - 34
4 Loyola Marymount University CA $103,223 $27,000 27
5 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo CA $101,072 $20,424 130
6 Northeastern University MA $100,613 $24,750 89
7 California State Polytechnic University-Pomona CA $97,790 $16,500 277
8 California State University-Northridge CA $97,123 $19,834 75
9 University of California-Los Angeles CA $97,092 $17,529 87
10 University of California-Irvine CA $96,354 $17,816 123
11 University of California-Davis CA $95,939 $16,000 127
12 Manhattan University NY $95,877 $27,000 99
13 San Diego State University CA $95,865 $19,832 227
14 California State University-Fullerton CA $95,854 $13,274 124
15 The University of Texas at Austin TX $95,271 $19,875 143
16 University of Colorado Boulder CO $94,960 $19,318 81
17 New York University NY $94,867 $21,970 42
18 California State University-Los Angeles CA $94,760 $16,500 73
19 Colorado School of Mines CO $94,228 $23,402 81
20 The College of New Jersey NJ $93,977 $26,500 31
21 California State University-Sacramento CA $93,973 $18,000 145
22 George Mason University VA $93,856 $20,787 93
23 Worcester Polytechnic Institute MA $93,417 $27,000 54
24 Wentworth Institute of Technology MA $93,402 $26,872 44
25 University of Maryland-College Park MD $93,280 $20,499 120
26 Stony Brook University NY $92,908 $16,500 39
27 Stevens Institute of Technology NJ $92,609 $27,000 40
28 California State University-Chico CA $92,472 $21,125 88
29 Texas A&M University-College Station TX $92,433 $19,500 202
30 University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus CO $92,224 $29,605 48
31 University of Washington-Seattle Campus WA $92,010 $15,000 118
32 Washington State University WA $91,879 $20,780 101
33 Lehigh University PA $91,856 $27,000 28
34 University of California-San Diego CA $91,745 $16,400 110
35 University of Virginia-Main Campus VA $91,651 $14,400 48
36 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IL $91,650 $19,000 157
37 University of Arizona AZ $91,602 $17,937 33
38 Cornell University NY $91,242 $12,500 32
39 San Francisco State University CA $90,894 $17,500 65
40 Purdue University-Main Campus IN $90,873 $19,500 173
41 Michigan State University MI $90,650 $26,500 82
42 University of Nevada-Las Vegas NV $90,474 $20,225 66
43 California Baptist University CA $90,251 $27,000 28
44 Texas Tech University TX $89,969 $25,980 85
45 Oregon State University OR $89,822 $22,500 123
46 University of Houston TX $89,653 $18,660 73
47 University of Cincinnati-Main Campus OH $89,653 $24,500 69
48 California State University-Long Beach CA $89,457 $15,850 122
49 Arizona State University Campus Immersion AZ $89,233 $22,500 113
50 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI $89,165 $18,750 42
51 University of Kansas KS $89,087 $20,500 60
52 Syracuse University NY $88,996 $27,000 36
53 Morgan State University MD $88,870 $20,909 48
54 Northern Arizona University AZ $88,184 $25,188 52
55 Marquette University WI $88,144 $26,750 30
56 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University VA $88,142 $25,000 204
57 The University of Texas at Tyler TX $88,102 $18,750 54
58 University of Massachusetts-Amherst MA $88,076 $26,961 79
59 Colorado State University-Fort Collins CO $88,001 $25,000 109
60 CUNY City College NY $87,957 $19,529 57
61 Illinois Institute of Technology IL $87,884 $24,000 31
62 University of Connecticut CT $87,883 $24,000 75
63 University of North Dakota ND $87,828 $18,211 49
64 University of Wisconsin-Madison WI $87,691 $21,500 98
65 The University of Alabama AL $87,685 $25,000 129
66 University of Georgia GA $87,684 $20,875 58
67 California State University-Fresno CA $87,627 $15,267 70
68 Rutgers University-New Brunswick NJ $87,557 $25,880 77
69 New Jersey Institute of Technology NJ $87,389 $20,000 195
70 University of Hawaii at Manoa HI $87,286 $20,165 83
71 University of Delaware DE $87,015 $25,000 53
72 Gonzaga University WA $86,942 $25,000 34
73 Oklahoma State University-Main Campus OK $86,890 $21,500 58
74 The University of Texas at Arlington TX $86,844 $19,583 102
75 University of Central Florida FL $86,803 $20,250 155
76 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute NY $86,794 $26,250 52
77 University of Florida FL $86,453 $18,609 128
78 University of Idaho ID $86,310 $20,125 37
79 University of Louisiana at Lafayette LA $86,128 $27,000 30
80 Portland State University OR $86,084 $22,470 71
81 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville IL $85,969 $20,264 54
82 Utah State University UT $85,815 $15,500 46
83 University of Notre Dame IN $85,781 $13,500 44
84 Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College LA $85,627 $21,312 108
85 North Carolina State University at Raleigh NC $85,568 $23,972 107
86 Iowa State University IA $85,427 $24,477 122
87 University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus OK $85,332 $22,250 46
88 Ohio State University-Main Campus OH $85,202 $21,820 136
89 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus GA $85,133 $18,750 106
90 University of Utah UT $85,097 $18,750 58
91 University of Missouri-Kansas City MO $85,055 $21,375 31
92 Missouri University of Science and Technology MO $85,053 $25,464 128
93 Drexel University PA $84,992 $31,000 65
94 Clemson University SC $84,873 $21,912 124
95 University at Buffalo NY $84,868 $19,500 167
96 University of South Florida FL $84,789 $21,625 85
97 Florida Atlantic University FL $84,778 $23,300 60
98 Florida International University FL $84,523 $20,044 157
99 Florida Gulf Coast University FL $84,451 $17,125 48
100 Florida State University FL $84,340 $18,835 103

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Civil Engineering (CIP 14.08) 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 Civil 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 Civil Engineering (CIP 14.08) only - construction management and other CIP-14 majors are ranked on their own pages when demand warrants.

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.