Chemical engineering majors at the best colleges in the field learn two basic skills: basic chemistry and how to process and work with chemicals and fluids in an economically and environmentally productive way. This discipline deals with how to work with chemicals, and how to put them to work or produce them, such as in processing factories, and in making specific products.
Top 30 Best Colleges for Chemical Engineering
We have analyzed over 200 colleges in the creation of this ranking of the best colleges for chemical engineering. Our focus is on the undergraduate program, although many of these universities have excellent graduate schools in the field as well.
| Rank | College | City | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge | MA |
| 2 | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta | GA |
| 3 | Stanford University | Palo Alto | CA |
| 4 | University of Texas | Austin | TX |
| 5 | California Institute of Technology | Pasadena | CA |
| 6 | Princeton University | Princeton | NJ |
| 7 | Purdue University | West Lafayette | IN |
| 8 | University of Minnesota | Twin Cities | MN |
| 9 | University of Michigan | Ann Arbor | MI |
| 10 | Texas A&M University | College Station | TX |
| 11 | University Of Wisconsin | Madison | WI |
| 12 | University of Delaware | Newark | DE |
| 13 | University of California - Berkeley | Berkeley | CA |
| 14 | North Carolina State University | Raleigh | NC |
| 15 | Cornell University | Ithaca | NY |
| 16 | Penn State | University Park | PA |
| 18 | Northwestern University | Evanston | IL |
| 17 | University of Illinois | Champaign | IL |
| 19 | University of Colorado | Boulder | CO |
| 20 | Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh | PA |
| 21 | The Ohio State University | Columbus | OH |
| 22 | University of Florida | Gainesville | FL |
| 23 | University of California - Los Angeles | Los Angeles | CA |
| 24 | University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | PA |
| 25 | Columbia University | New York | NY |
| 26 | University of Tennessee | Knoxville | TN |
| 27 | University of Washington | Seattle | WA |
| 28 | Rice University | Houston | TX |
| 29 | University of Notre Dame | South Bend | IN |
| 30 | Virginia Polytechnic University (Virginia Tech) | Blacksburg | VA |
More information on our RealRankTM analytics used in creating this ranking can be found on the About page.
Have you attended any of these programs? What is your experience at these universities?
What is a Chemical Engineering Major?
A typical chemical engineering major covers both a broad chemistry curriculum and a processing curriculum with a focus on fluids and chemical synthesis, manufacture and transport. Among the subjects covered in a typical Chemical Engineering major are:
- Basic Core Sciences:
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- chemistry
- biology
- physics
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- Mathematics
- Engineering Disciplines, such as:
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- Thermodynamics
- Fluid mechanics and flow
- Fluid Transport Processes
- Chemical Processing
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Chemical Engineering Careers
Students graduating with degrees in chemical engineering qualify for a wide range of engineering, research and management oriented careers. As with other engineering disciplines, the entry level salaries for chemical engineers tends to be at the high end of entry level jobs available to undergraduates. This of course changes the economic assessment of the private vs. public universities’ costs on the list of the best colleges for chemical engineering. Examples of careers available in the field are:
- Biotechnologist
- Chemical engineer
- Product/process development scientist
- Energy engineer
- Energy manager
- Mining engineer
- Production manager
- Nuclear engineer
- Color technologist
- Quality manager
- Waste management
- Waste water treatment designer
- Petroleum engineer
- Analytical chemist
- Environmental engineer
- Manufacturing engineer
- Materials engineer
