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Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

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2023 Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

125 Colleges

Finding the Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree School for You

Civil Engineering is the #43 most popular major in the country with 6,042 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

With all the programs available today, it can be tough to choose which one is the best for you. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Grad Degree Search has developed this Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. This report analyzed 125 schools in the United States to see which ones offered the best doctor's degree programs for students. Factors related to overall quality of the school, post-graduation earnings, average student debt, and more accumulated were considered when coming up with this list.

View our full ranking methodology.

2023 Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools in the United States

Check out the civil eng doctor's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best education that money can buy.

Top 15% Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

Our analysis found Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be the best school for civil engineering students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in the United States. MIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Cambridge.

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#2

Duke University

Durham, NC

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Duke University is a great place for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

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#3

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Princeton University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best civil engineering schools in the United States. Princeton is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Princeton.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Princeton University

#4

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN

Out of the 125 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Notre Dame landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Notre Dame

#5

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means Northwestern University is a great place for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit college with a very large student population.

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#6

Rice University

Houston, TX

Rice University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the large city of Houston, Rice is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Rice University

With a ranking of #7, University of Virginia - Main Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. University of Virginia is a fairly large public school located in the small suburb of Charlottesville.

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#8

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN

Vanderbilt University ranked #8 on this year’s Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Vanderbilt University Report

#9

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Cornell University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Cornell University

The University of Texas at Austin came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the large city of Austin, UT Austin is a public college with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin Report

#11

Lehigh University

Bethlehem, PA

With a ranking of #11, Lehigh University did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Bethlehem, Lehigh is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.

Full Civil Engineering at Lehigh University Report

With a ranking of #12, Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for civil engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Georgia Tech is a very large public school located in the city of Atlanta.

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#13

Purdue University - Main Campus

West Lafayette, IN

Purdue University - Main Campus landed the #13 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public school with a very large student population.

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University of Southern California landed the #14 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. USC is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Los Angeles.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Southern California

#15

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Stanford University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for civil engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #15 on the list. Stanford is a large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Stanford.

Full Civil Engineering at Stanford University Report

University of California - Berkeley landed the #16 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. Located in the city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public school with a fairly large student population.

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Texas A&M University - College Station landed the #17 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree civil engineering programs. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public school located in the medium-sized city of College Station.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University - College Station

North Carolina State University came in at #18 in this year’s edition of the Best Civil Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the city of Raleigh, NC State is a public school with a very large student population.

Full Civil Engineering at North Carolina State University Report

Additional Noteworthy Schools

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
19 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
20 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
21 University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI
22 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA
23 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
24 Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO
25 University of Washington - Seattle Campus Seattle, WA

Civil Engineering by Region

View the Best Civil Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Great Lakes

Civil Engineering is one of 39 different types of programs to choose from.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering 11,021
Mechanical Engineering 9,007
Computer Engineering 5,557
Biomedical Engineering 4,252
General Engineering 3,548

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • Read more about our ranking methodology.
  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Master Sgt. Roger Parsons.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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