The Top-Ranking Private Engineering Colleges

eHow
June 9, 2011

Technology careers, which include various engineering fields, are considered some of the best career opportunities around today. Engineering industries continue to grow, and engineering graduates can earn a starting salary of $57,000 to $66,000. Several private colleges rank among the top engineering schools. Although private colleges are more expensive, many offer competitive financial aid and some boast smaller class sizes. The prestige associated with a private college degree is another draw.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
MIT consistently ranks among the top engineering schools internationally. US News & World Report ranked it the No. 1 engineering and IT university in the world in 2010. Located in Cambridge, Mass., MIT is a relatively small school: undergraduate enrollment for the 2010-2011 school year was 4,299, with 1,977 engineering majors.Annual tuition was $39,212. MIT graduates with a bachelor's degree earned, on average, $64,523 upon entering the field. MIT researchers are responsible for scores of technological innovations over the last 150 years, including development of standard gasoline processing techniques, pioneering high-speed photography and making digital computers possible.

Stanford University
Stanford University, located in Palo Alto, Calif., is one of the United States' premier private universities. U.S. News ranks it the No. 2 best engineering and IT university in the world. With a 6.2-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio, Stanford students have the opportunity for individual instruction and the benefits of small class sizes. Tuition for the 2010-2011 school year was $38,700. Stanford students and researchers have had historic achievements in engineering and technology. Google was founded by Stanford students, and large-scale engineering projects are sponsored by companies like Nissan.

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Caltech is ranked fifth by U.S. News among best engineering schools. The private research university is located in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech had 2,175 students enrolled in 2010 and a student-to-faculty ration of about 7 to 1. Tuition for the 2011-2012 school year is $36,387. Caltech faculty and alumni have received outstanding accolades, including 32 Nobel prizes and 55 National Medals of Science.

Other Top 100 Engineering Schools
Several other private universities rank in the U.S. News 100 best universities for IT and engineering: University of Oxford in the United Kingdom (No. 9), Carnegie Mellon University (No. 12), Cornell University (No. 19), Princeton University (No. 21), Harvard University (No. 22), Columbia University (No. 56) and the University of Pennsylvania (No. 72).

References
"U.S. News & World Report"; Best Careers 2011: Technology Jobs; Alexis Grant; December 6, 2010
NACE: Top Paid Majors for the Class of 2011
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT Facts 2011
Stanford University: Stanford Facts
Caltech Division of Engineering and Applied Science: Facts & History

Resources
“U.S. News and World Report”; World's Best Universities: Engineering and IT; September 21, 2010
“NY Times”; Weighing the Costs in Public vs. Private Colleges; Jonathan D. Glater; Dec. 13, 2006