Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Industrial Engineering (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering earn a median of $98,442 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $81,158 and $121,691. We rank the 64 U.S. colleges whose Industrial Engineering programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 3,974 graduates in all. That puts Industrial Engineering at #5 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank, among the best-paid fields.
Northwestern University, in Illinois, leads at $138,720, 42% above the median ranked school ($98,027). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $92,734 and $104,593, and the lowest earns $72,958, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 30 of the 64 ranked schools (47%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 15 public, 5 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 88% are public. The top 20 are spread across 17 states, with California the most common (2).
The top 20 schools cost about the same as the rest of the list: a median net price of $18,482 a year, against $18,099 across all 64 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $21,400 in federal loans, about 19% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 1.1 years.
Showing the top 50 of 64 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $138,720 | 46 | $18,000 | $29,167 | 1.1 |
| 2 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA Public · 4-year | $128,003 | 217 | $19,791 | $12,116 | 0.5 |
| 3 | Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $121,498 | 40 | $23,834 | $36,931 | 1.7 |
| 4 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $117,930 | 164 | $19,750 | $13,138 | 0.6 |
| 5 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA Public · 4-year | $116,641 | 113 | $22,625 | $24,953 | 1.2 |
| 6 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA Public · 4-year | $112,797 | 78 | $19,691 | $16,665 | 0.9 |
| 7 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $112,150 | 42 | $17,704 | $32,740 | 1.7 |
| 8 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Public · 4-year | $111,672 | 26 † | $24,889 | $25,097 | 1.4 |
| 9 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $111,430 | 55 | $25,000 | $30,915 | 1.8 |
| 10 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI Public · 4-year | $110,711 | 86 | $23,481 | $17,354 | 0.9 |
| 11 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $109,575 | 36 † | $16,743 | $14,091 | 0.8 |
| 12 | The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN Public · 4-year | $107,093 | 30 † | $21,500 | $18,976 | 1.1 |
| 13 | Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN Public · 4-year | $107,031 | 129 | $18,357 | $14,600 | 0.8 |
| 14 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year | $106,932 | 87 | $21,000 | $17,339 | 1.0 |
| 15 | Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $105,313 | 61 | $30,677 | $34,906 | 2.0 |
| 16 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $104,758 | 140 | $24,250 | $32,875 | 1.9 |
| 17 | University of Louisville Louisville, KY Public · 4-year | $104,538 | 34 † | $23,000 | $17,988 | 1.0 |
| 18 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL Public · 4-year | $103,143 | 42 | $21,299 | $14,355 | 0.9 |
| 19 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ Public · 4-year | $102,439 | 50 | $19,189 | $14,967 | 0.9 |
| 20 | Oregon State University Corvallis, OR Public · 4-year | $101,653 | 38 † | $21,899 | $19,604 | 1.2 |
| 21 | New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ Public · 4-year | $101,547 | 35 † | $25,000 | $16,504 | 1.0 |
| 22 | University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO Public · 4-year | $101,380 | 53 | $26,512 | $20,268 | 1.2 |
| 23 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC Public · 4-year | $100,172 | 67 | $21,096 | $17,303 | 1.0 |
| 24 | Auburn University Auburn, AL Public · 4-year | $99,441 | 69 | $23,250 | $24,323 | 1.4 |
| 25 | Ohio University-Main Campus Athens, OH Public · 4-year | $99,364 | 26 † | $27,000 | $21,637 | 1.4 |
| 26 | West Virginia University Morgantown, WV Public · 4-year | $99,180 | 122 | $25,048 | $15,634 | 1.0 |
| 27 | University of Miami Coral Gables, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $99,068 | 35 † | $15,110 | $37,244 | 2.3 |
| 28 | University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR Public · 4-year | $98,765 | 57 | $25,405 | $18,209 | 1.1 |
| 29 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA Public · 4-year | $98,654 | 66 | $24,375 | $30,434 | 2.0 |
| 30 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $98,509 | 43 | $22,500 | $36,228 | 2.3 |
| 31 | University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus Norman, OK Public · 4-year | $98,394 | 65 | $27,000 | $15,300 | 1.0 |
| 32 | Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX Public · 4-year | $98,266 | 70 | $28,500 | $19,070 | 1.2 |
| 33 | The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, TX Public · 4-year | $97,788 | 41 | $18,359 | $13,951 | 0.9 |
| 34 | University of Minnesota-Duluth Duluth, MN Public · 4-year | $97,732 | 26 † | $24,592 | $18,743 | 1.3 |
| 35 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL Public · 4-year | $96,504 | 33 † | $19,375 | $11,297 | 0.7 |
| 36 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX Public · 4-year | $95,918 | 198 | $18,749 | $21,315 | 1.4 |
| 37 | California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA Public · 4-year | $95,835 | 71 | $25,000 | $11,531 | 0.8 |
| 38 | Binghamton University Vestal, NY Public · 4-year | $95,354 | 81 | $20,500 | $21,620 | 1.5 |
| 39 | University of Iowa Iowa City, IA Public · 4-year | $95,347 | 42 | $21,375 | $22,531 | 1.5 |
| 40 | University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, AL Public · 4-year | $95,153 | 33 † | $27,997 | $18,796 | 1.2 |
| 41 | University of Houston Houston, TX Public · 4-year | $94,814 | 38 † | $20,500 | $14,276 | 1.0 |
| 42 | Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA Public · 4-year | $94,748 | 60 | $21,500 | $19,151 | 1.3 |
| 43 | Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK Public · 4-year | $94,692 | 41 | $26,000 | $17,447 | 1.2 |
| 44 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ Public · 4-year | $94,382 | 51 | $26,855 | $24,406 | 1.7 |
| 45 | North Carolina A & T State University Greensboro, NC Public · 4-year | $93,183 | 37 † | $31,000 | $10,846 | 0.7 |
| 46 | Kansas State University Manhattan, KS Public · 4-year | $93,098 | 49 | $24,399 | $19,406 | 1.3 |
| 47 | Iowa State University Ames, IA Public · 4-year | $92,914 | 157 | $23,250 | $18,589 | 1.3 |
| 48 | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Rapid City, SD Public · 4-year | $92,815 | 36 † | $25,000 | $20,183 | 1.4 |
| 49 | Clemson University Clemson, SC Public · 4-year | $92,491 | 115 | $24,000 | $22,253 | 1.5 |
| 50 | Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS Public · 4-year | $92,332 | 37 † | $27,000 | $17,595 | 1.1 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Industrial Engineering (CIP 1435, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 64.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Industrial Engineering earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $112,150 | 3 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo |
| Pennsylvania | $104,758 | 3 | Lehigh University |
| Illinois | $103,143 | 3 | Northwestern University |
| New York | $96,932 | 4 | Rochester Institute of Technology |
| Texas | $95,366 | 6 | Texas Tech University |
| Florida | $94,067 | 4 | University of Miami |
| Ohio | $92,852 | 4 | Ohio State University-Main Campus |
| Wisconsin | $88,099 | 4 | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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