Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Mechanical Engineering Technology (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology earn a median of $82,073 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $66,779 and $98,563. We rank the 45 U.S. colleges whose Mechanical Engineering Technology programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 2,854 graduates in all. That puts Mechanical Engineering Technology at #27 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Cal Poly Maritime Academy, in California, leads at $126,209, 55% above the median ranked school ($81,259). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $79,299 and $86,226, and the lowest earns $52,781, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 22 of the 45 ranked schools (49%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 12 public, 6 private nonprofit and 2 for-profit. The top 20 are spread across 12 states, with California the most common (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $17,554 a year, against $15,649 across all 45 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $26,664 in federal loans, about 31% 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 1.4 years.
Showing the top 45 of 45 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Cal Poly Maritime Academy Vallejo, CA Public · 4-year | $126,209 | 47 | $24,757 | $20,555 | 0.9 |
| 2 | Farmingdale State College Farmingdale, NY Public · 4-year | $91,941 | 63 | $14,000 | $10,867 | 0.8 |
| 3 | University of Maine Orono, ME Public · 4-year | $91,879 | 59 | $26,716 | $17,510 | 1.3 |
| 4 | California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA Public · 4-year | $91,230 | 44 | $24,354 | $11,531 | 0.9 |
| 5 | Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology (OK) Tulsa, OK For-profit · 4-year | $90,263 | 33 † | — | $29,776 | 2.1 |
| 6 | Art Center College of Design Pasadena, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $90,188 | 35 † | $50,250 | $48,661 | 3.7 |
| 7 | American Public University System Charles Town, WV For-profit · 4-year | $89,871 | 29 † | $26,612 | $9,597 | 0.7 |
| 8 | Western New England University Springfield, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $89,642 | 40 | $27,000 | $27,290 | 2.2 |
| 9 | New England Institute of Technology East Greenwich, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $88,991 | 42 | $29,833 | $36,483 | 3.0 |
| 10 | Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN Public · 4-year | $86,891 | 286 | $19,500 | $14,600 | 1.2 |
| 11 | Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI Public · 4-year | $86,472 | 68 | $28,000 | $17,597 | 1.4 |
| 12 | Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $86,226 | 129 | $28,000 | $34,906 | 2.8 |
| 13 | Indiana University-Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN Public · 4-year | $85,533 | 65 | $24,937 | $11,668 | 1.0 |
| 14 | Purdue University Northwest Hammond, IN Public · 4-year | $85,242 | 51 | $20,750 | $6,079 | 0.5 |
| 15 | Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology Flushing, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $85,222 | 42 | $27,000 | $39,986 | 3.2 |
| 16 | Central Washington University Ellensburg, WA Public · 4-year | $84,871 | 28 † | $22,190 | $18,476 | 1.7 |
| 17 | University of Houston Houston, TX Public · 4-year | $84,692 | 128 | $27,000 | $14,276 | 1.1 |
| 18 | University of Toledo Toledo, OH Public · 4-year | $83,465 | 80 | $24,055 | $17,249 | 1.5 |
| 19 | Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI Public · 4-year | $83,394 | 51 | $29,598 | $14,182 | 1.2 |
| 20 | LeTourneau University Longview, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $83,158 | 26 † | — | $28,185 | 2.3 |
| 21 | Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA Public · 4-year | $83,083 | 74 | $23,000 | $15,048 | 1.2 |
| 22 | Ferris State University Big Rapids, MI Public · 4-year | $82,821 | 132 | $23,500 | $8,624 | 0.7 |
| 23 | Purdue University Fort Wayne Fort Wayne, IN Public · 4-year | $81,259 | 57 | $27,000 | $13,171 | 1.2 |
| 24 | University of Akron Main Campus Akron, OH Public · 4-year | $80,611 | 49 | $24,298 | $13,946 | 1.3 |
| 25 | Minnesota State University-Mankato Mankato, MN Public · 4-year | $80,482 | 36 † | $25,530 | $19,139 | 1.8 |
| 26 | University of Dayton Dayton, OH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $80,475 | 31 † | $27,000 | $29,533 | 2.7 |
| 27 | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred Alfred, NY Public · 4-year | $80,450 | 60 | $26,000 | $15,016 | 1.3 |
| 28 | University of North Texas Denton, TX Public · 4-year | $80,138 | 36 † | $23,980 | $15,649 | 1.4 |
| 29 | Montana State University Bozeman, MT Public · 4-year | $80,089 | 48 | $28,000 | $22,499 | 1.9 |
| 30 | Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, MI Public · 4-year | $79,829 | 37 † | $27,000 | $15,407 | 1.4 |
| 31 | Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN Public · 4-year | $79,527 | 72 | $23,378 | $10,873 | 1.0 |
| 32 | Weber State University Ogden, UT Public · 4-year | $79,471 | 34 † | $12,250 | $10,258 | 1.0 |
| 33 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA Public · 4-year | $79,342 | 60 | $27,000 | $32,875 | 3.1 |
| 34 | Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL Public · 4-year | $79,299 | 150 | $15,193 | $13,297 | 1.2 |
| 35 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC Public · 4-year | $78,160 | 104 | $25,750 | $15,435 | 1.4 |
| 36 | Tarleton State University Stephenville, TX Public · 4-year | $77,044 | 25 † | $20,000 | $20,783 | 2.0 |
| 37 | SUNY Polytechnic Institute Utica, NY Public · 4-year | $76,413 | 69 | $18,750 | $14,164 | 1.4 |
| 38 | Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK Public · 4-year | $76,400 | 83 | $22,409 | $17,447 | 1.7 |
| 39 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA Public · 4-year | $75,897 | 37 † | — | $30,434 | 3.1 |
| 40 | Fairmont State University Fairmont, WV Public · 4-year | $75,569 | 29 † | $19,279 | $9,032 | 0.9 |
| 41 | Pittsburg State University Pittsburg, KS Public · 4-year | $74,878 | 44 | $23,500 | $15,784 | 1.6 |
| 42 | CUNY New York City College of Technology Brooklyn, NY Public · 4-year | $73,336 | 89 | $7,000 | $5,127 | 0.5 |
| 43 | SUNY Buffalo State University Buffalo, NY Public · 4-year | $73,327 | 49 | $22,400 | $11,346 | 1.2 |
| 44 | Pennsylvania College of Technology Williamsport, PA Public · 4-year | $69,714 | 49 | $27,000 | $25,110 | 3.0 |
| 45 | McPherson College McPherson, KS Private nonprofit · 4-year | $52,781 | 54 | $26,975 | $26,441 | 5.9 |
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 Mechanical Engineering Technology (CIP 1508, 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 45.
- 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 Mechanical Engineering Technology 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 | $91,230 | 3 | Cal Poly Maritime Academy |
| Indiana | $85,242 | 5 | Purdue University-Main Campus |
| Michigan | $83,108 | 4 | Central Michigan University |
| Texas | $81,648 | 4 | University of Houston |
| Ohio | $80,611 | 3 | University of Toledo |
| New York | $80,450 | 7 | Farmingdale State College |
| Pennsylvania | $75,897 | 3 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus |
Related majors
Other fields to compare, by what graduates earn.
-
Industrial Production Technology (Bachelor's)
$80,890 national median · 36 schools
-
Construction Engineering Technology (Bachelor's)
$93,843 national median · 33 schools
-
Electrical Engineering Technology (Bachelor's)
$84,599 national median · 25 schools
-
Engineering Technology (General) (Bachelor's)
$80,526 national median · 21 schools
-
Engineering-Related Fields (Bachelor's)
$89,619 national median · 21 schools
-
Economics (Bachelor's)
$82,686 national median · 274 schools
-
Environmental Engineering (Bachelor's)
$81,171 national median · 29 schools
-
Management Information Systems (Bachelor's)
$83,290 national median · 118 schools
All majors College rankings How to read Scorecard earnings data Community college vs. four-year college