Program ranking · CIP 14.10 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Electrical 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 Electrical Engineering (CIP 14.10) 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

$250,168
Highest electrical engineering earnings: 100
Colleges ranked: $98,871
#100 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $98,871 median earnings for Electrical Engineering bachelor's (CIP 14.10) completers. Carnegie Mellon University leads at $250,168.

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

$250,168
#1 - Carnegie Mellon University: $98,871
#100 - the cutoff to make this list: 25+
completers required per school: 399
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.

Carnegie Mellon University

$250,168
University of California…

$200,543
Massachusetts Institute …

$161,118
Cornell University

$147,241
The University of Texas at

$146,003
The Cooper Union for the

$139,068
Rice University

$136,656
University of California…

$126,209
California Polytechnic S…

$125,240
University of California…

$118,290
University of California…

$118,150
Northeastern University

$118,150
University of Michigan-A…

$117,610
Villanova University

$117,229
University of California…

$117,215

What this shows Electrical-engineering medians swing with semiconductor, power, and telecom markets - debt and cohort size still matter alongside the headline median.

The full top 100

#	School Name	State	Median Earnings	Median Debt	Completers
1	Carnegie Mellon University	PA	$250,168	$22,224	166
2	University of California-Berkeley	CA	$200,543	$13,674	528
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	MA	$161,118	$10,967	73
4	Cornell University	NY	$147,241	$14,725	87
5	The University of Texas at Austin	TX	$146,003	$20,480	320
6	The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art	NY	$139,068	-	31
7	Rice University	TX	$136,656	-	49
8	University of California-Los Angeles	CA	$126,209	$16,979	142
9	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo	CA	$125,240	$23,475	136
10	University of California-Santa Cruz	CA	$118,290	$16,796	40
11	University of California-San Diego	CA	$118,150	$20,000	218
12	Northeastern University	MA	$118,150	$24,583	87
13	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	MI	$117,610	$17,430	119
14	Villanova University	PA	$117,229	$27,000	28
15	University of California-Santa Barbara	CA	$117,215	$15,500	68
16	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	WA	$116,010	$14,000	226
17	University of Washington-Bothell Campus	WA	$116,010	$14,000	76
18	Prairie View A & M University	TX	$115,939	$25,000	25
19	University of Notre Dame	IN	$112,828	$19,000	45
20	Sonoma State University	CA	$112,757	-	25
21	San Francisco State University	CA	$112,454	$16,125	38
22	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	IL	$111,783	$21,500	177
23	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	GA	$111,655	$22,250	158
24	University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus	CO	$110,754	$29,014	50
25	Kettering University	MI	$109,977	$30,000	35
26	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	MA	$109,386	$26,887	87
27	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	NJ	$108,296	$23,000	224
28	California State University-Fresno	CA	$108,038	$25,875	29
29	University of Maryland-College Park	MD	$107,834	$21,000	112
30	University of Florida	FL	$107,543	$20,650	121
31	Virginia Commonwealth University	VA	$107,487	$22,550	37
32	University of Houston	TX	$107,399	$22,625	84
33	New York University	NY	$107,348	$24,000	42
34	Texas Tech University	TX	$107,110	$26,000	69
35	University of California-Irvine	CA	$106,871	$19,000	79
36	Marquette University	WI	$106,686	$25,947	26
37	San Diego State University	CA	$106,416	$17,999	106
38	University of North Dakota	ND	$106,162	$27,000	39
39	University of Rhode Island	RI	$106,153	$21,500	27
40	Mississippi State University	MS	$106,039	$25,037	72
41	Colorado School of Mines	CO	$106,012	$21,500	93
42	University of Arizona	AZ	$105,839	$21,000	101
43	University of Michigan-Dearborn	MI	$105,446	$20,833	121
44	Purdue University-Main Campus	IN	$105,396	$17,750	203
45	Oregon State University	OR	$105,359	$22,664	111
46	University of Rochester	NY	$105,183	$18,175	65
47	University of Missouri-Columbia	MO	$105,034	$22,500	38
48	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	VA	$104,839	$23,562	104
49	Arizona State University Campus Immersion	AZ	$104,757	$24,263	184
50	Arizona State University Digital Immersion	AZ	$104,757	$24,263	161
51	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	NY	$104,596	$23,250	107
52	The University of Texas at Dallas	TX	$104,448	$24,125	125
53	Washington State University	WA	$104,354	$18,546	110
54	Rowan University	NJ	$104,215	$23,000	58
55	California State University-Northridge	CA	$104,065	$16,382	78
56	California State Polytechnic University-Pomona	CA	$103,924	$17,985	108
57	Texas A&M University-College Station	TX	$103,789	$20,968	281
58	California State University-Sacramento	CA	$103,512	$16,500	94
59	California State University-Long Beach	CA	$103,075	$19,000	125
60	George Mason University	VA	$103,074	$25,000	62
61	Lamar University	TX	$103,037	$18,301	31
62	Drexel University	PA	$102,978	$29,666	81
63	University of California-Riverside	CA	$102,630	$19,250	65
64	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	PA	$102,572	$25,250	55
65	University of South Florida	FL	$102,275	$23,500	95
66	North Carolina State University at Raleigh	NC	$102,178	$23,500	184
67	Portland State University	OR	$101,905	$23,875	58
68	Oregon Institute of Technology	OR	$101,534	$20,500	27
69	University of Massachusetts-Amherst	MA	$101,091	$27,000	47
70	University of Massachusetts-Lowell	MA	$101,054	$25,413	106
71	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	NE	$100,972	$21,422	53
72	Wayne State University	MI	$100,944	$23,182	65
73	University of Massachusetts-Boston	MA	$100,902	$24,477	30
74	University of Nevada-Las Vegas	NV	$100,765	$24,896	38
75	Boise State University	ID	$100,680	$32,250	37
76	University of Colorado Boulder	CO	$100,631	$19,221	26
77	Michigan State University	MI	$100,481	$22,500	101
78	Grand Valley State University	MI	$100,456	$29,091	31
79	Bradley University	IL	$100,391	$27,000	25
80	University of Alabama in Huntsville	AL	$100,296	$22,125	59
81	University of South Alabama	AL	$100,166	$22,500	26
82	University of South Carolina-Columbia	SC	$100,042	$27,000	38
83	The University of Texas at Arlington	TX	$99,993	$23,316	52
84	Oakland University	MI	$99,967	$25,971	128
85	Michigan Technological University	MI	$99,848	$27,000	102
86	Auburn University	AL	$99,799	$22,500	71
87	Brigham Young University	UT	$99,774	$12,500	30
88	Iowa State University	IA	$99,705	$25,020	104
89	Case Western Reserve University	OH	$99,557	$23,074	51
90	West Virginia University	WV	$99,542	$22,221	50
91	Louisiana Tech University	LA	$99,526	$18,750	45
92	New York Institute of Technology	NY	$99,480	$26,000	33
93	University of Central Florida	FL	$99,442	$22,511	187
94	Ohio State University-Main Campus	OH	$99,400	$21,875	200
95	Binghamton University	NY	$99,397	$21,500	38
96	Southern Illinois University Edwardsville	IL	$99,325	$24,000	40
97	Colorado State University-Fort Collins	CO	$99,172	$25,176	67
98	Boston University	MA	$98,953	$26,646	50
99	The University of Alabama	AL	$98,943	$23,787	79
100	University of Virginia-Main Campus	VA	$98,871	-	32

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Electrical Engineering (CIP 14.10) 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 Electrical 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 Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering (CIP 14.10) - computer engineering (CIP 14.09) and the CIP-14 family rollup 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.

Cite this page

PlainCollege, “Best Colleges for Electrical Engineering.” Compiled from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, IPEDS, and Treasury earnings-linkage datasets; data as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals. https://plaincollege.com/rankings/best-colleges-for-electrical-engineering

Formal citation formats (APA / MLA)

APA: PlainCollege. (2026). Best Colleges for Electrical Engineering. Retrieved September 11, 2026, from https://plaincollege.com/rankings/best-colleges-for-electrical-engineering

MLA: "Best Colleges for Electrical Engineering." PlainCollege, 2026, https://plaincollege.com/rankings/best-colleges-for-electrical-engineering.

You are welcome to quote these figures with attribution to PlainCollege and the underlying federal source. The URL above is stable.