What Are The Best Engineering Schools?

Published by Stuart Nachbar at April 24, 2026

Liberal arts colleges that offer engineering

Examples: Hope College (MI), Lafayette College (PA), Union College (NY)

Advantages

Smaller classes
Opportunities to mingle, make friends with students who have different interests.
Liberal arts colleges are more of a “single doorway,” where incoming freshmen do not need to commit to a major before they arrive. They would have at least a year to decide if engineering or another major is more appropriate for them.
Opportunities to get to know the faculty and engage them in their research as well as capstones and independent study. Students are less likely to be taught be teaching assistants.
Easier to carry a second major or minor(s) outside of engineering by double dipping with general education requirements.
Will be appealing to those who want a social life based around the campus and surrounding community.
These schools appear, at least to me, to be more cooperative than competitive versus engineering programs at larger schools and technical institutes.

Disadvantages

Fewer students might mean fewer contacts with employers who recruit on campus for internships and full-time jobs. The exceptions might be schools like Lafayette or Union that have long histories of granting engineering degrees.
Students whose interests balance more towards math, science and technology might not like to take more courses outside of these areas. Some, such as humanities, foreign language or social sciences might have been weak spots in high school.
There are not as many engineering majors available at a smaller school, and it’s more difficult to introduce a new engineering major unless it can use faculty and resources that are already available in an existing major. For example, an environmental engineering major can be spawned from a civil engineering major.
If engineering does not work out at the start there are fewer majors to choose than one would find at a larger school.

Tips

Look for schools that have ABET accredited programs in the major.
Ask the career development office to tell you how long the school has offered engineering programs and where graduates are likely to intern as well as work full time.
Consider second majors that could shift into the primary major or become minors .

Engineering schools within a university

Examples: Bucknell (smaller school), Lehigh, Case Western, Tufts (mid-sized), Rutgers-New Brunswick (large public university), Cornell University (large private university)

Advantages

Fewer general education requirements outside of mathematics, science and engineering.
Direct immersion for committed students or Undeclared Engineering pathway for first-year students to enter into a desired major within a year.
The larger the school and the engineering programs, the larger the number of potential employers requiring on campus
Some schools have adapted recorded lectures to introductory courses to put more emphasis on labs and recitation sections to solve problems.
The larger the school the more likely it will have career services dedicated to engineering.
Many of the schools support cooperative education where students alternate between semesters of full-time employment and full-time classroom instruction.
Larger choice of clubs and organizations dedicated to engineering students.

Disadvantages

The larger the school, the larger the introductory courses. This means less direct contact with faculty and more reliance on teaching assistants.
This also means that introductory courses can be graded on a curve versus a more personalized exam and evaluation..
Course loads tend to be five or six courses a term with labs. It’s more difficult to carry a second major or minor outside of engineering, unless courses overlap with the major.
It’s very difficult to switch into engineering from another major unless the school has exploratory pathways,
Engineering is treated as an impacted or restricted major at several schools. This means higher hurdles towards admissions.

Tips

Ask about the sizes of introductory courses as well as the teaching and tutoring support.
Investigate research and internship opportunities for sophomores as well as juniors and seniors.
Consider a school where engineering students complete a common core before choosing a major, and are not capped out of any major.

Institutes of Technology

Examples: CalTech, Stevens Institute of Technology (smaller school), MIT, WPI, RPI (mid-sized school), Georgia Tech (larger school)

Advantages

Technical focus means greater emphasis on math ,science and technology for those more inclined towards those subjects.
These schools tend to be single doorway, outside of an architecture program that might require a portfolio. They’re less likely to admit students to a major at the start. Georgia Tech, being a larger school.is an exception.
More opportunities to do research and independent studies with faculty than at larger universities.
With some exceptions these schools tend to have smaller numbers of graduate students and less reliance on teaching assistants in a classroom setting.
Career development and on-campus recruitment are dedicated to science and technology.
Some, outside of the most selective, can offer generous scholarships to deserving students.
The good schools tend to emphasize cooperation over competition

Disadvantages

Smaller selection of majors though some also offer architecture and/or business. Those who struggle early might have a tougher time finding or gaining admission to another major.
Humanities and social sciences are taught to “round out” a technical education versus being a possible second major or minor. Again, georgia tech is an exception since it has multiple schools, including a liberal arts college, Ivan Allen, named for a former mayor of Atlanta.
These schools seem to rely on Greek social life to accommodate larger shares of students than other types of colleges; it might be harder for those who want to avoid a Greek system or do not receive bids to the Greek organizations they like.

Tips

Look at the majors list. Unless you’re firmly certain about a particular major, you want to know how easy or hard it will be to have a choice of majors.
Consider schools that have first-year projects go beyond introductory math and science coursework .
Ask about part-time jobs and research opportunities for the freshman and sophomore years.
While most engineering programs have a senior design course, look at schools where students do original design work before senior year.

When it comes to the more selective schools admissions expectations are blurring. Cornell, MIT and Dartmouth, as three examples, have become test mandatory. Exceptional reading scores are expected as well as exceptional math scores. Academic strengths across all subjects, including humanities and social sciences, are expected as well though engineering and science can dominate the applicant’s curiosities outside of the classroom.

I’ve also learned that student success in these programs depends on how one has become reliant on a teacher to guide and motivate them. Those who can learn well on their own or form groups might fare fine at schools where they would receive less attention from the faculty. But the who needed the teacher to get them excited about concepts on math and science might want to take a longer look at the liberal arts schools that offer engineering.