Best UC Colleges for Engineering • The Top 9 Ranked

The Best UC Colleges for Engineering

The best UC colleges for engineering include six programs ranked in the top 50 nationally by U.S. News, and UC schools as a whole have a good track record in engineering. While there’s certainly variance from program to program, in these rankings we’ll be lumping together the common engineering majors, including:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Computer science is not considered in ranking the best UC colleges for engineering, as we’ve already ranked the best California schools for computer science here.

In considering these factors, it’s important to remember that college rankings aren’t everything. In engineering specifically, a good GPA at any University of California school will be enough to launch your career.

With less variance in salaries compared to business degrees, for example, it’s important to consider other factors such as the tuition, financial aid, location, and the college experience you’re looking for.

The good news is that there are significant benefits to studying engineering at any UC school, including in-state tuition, transfer pipelines with community colleges and transfer universities, and established connections with local engineering firms.

Enough disclaimers—let’s get to the rankings that you’re here for!

9. UC Santa Cruz

The Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz offers a wide range of majors:

• Applied Math
• Biomolecular Engineering and Bioinformatics
• Biotechnology
• Computer Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Network and Digital Technology
• Robotics Engineering
• Technology and Information Management

UC Santa Cruz has a heavy emphasis on research and student involvement in research, and that holds true for the engineering programs as well.

With computer science and game design being among their most recognized majors, UC Santa Cruz may have managed a higher ranking if we included those majors in the ranking criteria.

8. UC Merced

Placing near the bottom of this list, UC Merced is still doing a fine job of launching careers in engineering. Their undergraduate engineering programs have ranked as high as 123rd in the country, with top-100 graduate rankings in three programs:

• Environmental Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Materials Engineering

The school also offers an impressive range of undergraduate engineering majors:

• Bioengineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
• Mechanical Engineering

For a school only offering 25 undergraduate majors, UC Merced is surprisingly well represented in engineering.

While they’re not the most prestigious school in the University of California system, UC Merced can still be a great choice for engineering majors.

7. UC Riverside

UC Riverside has been growing quickly over the past few years, and placed among the top 100 engineering schools in the latest U.S. News national rankings. The undergraduate majors in engineering are:

• Bioengineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Computer Science
• Computer Science with Business Applications
• Data Science
• Environmental Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Robotics Engineering

Seven of these majors include accelerated B.S. to M.S. opportunities, and the robotics engineering major is the latest to be added to this long list.

Recognized as a leading college in social mobility, UC Riverside offers a great value and established reputation in engineering, and the accelerated Master’s degrees can add even more value for students in those programs.

6. UC Irvine

The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine is among the top 50 schools nationally for undergraduate engineering, with incoming students boasting an average GPA of 4.18.

Mechanical engineering is the most popular engineering major at UC Irvine, but they offer many more:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

The college’s distinctives include an emphasis on experiential learning, research and study abroad opportunities, student groups, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

5. UC Davis

UC Davis boasts top-30 national engineering rankings and a breadth of undergraduate majors. All of the majors except for environmental engineering have received ABET accreditation.

• Aerospace Science and Engineering
• Biochemical Engineering
• Biological Systems Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Areas of faculty specialties include energy, alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles, computer network security, and biomedical imaging technology.

UC Davis is a respected school with great engineering programs, and you can also check out this intro to engineering video put together by UC Davis.

4. UC Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara offers prestige with a personal touch, boasting a 10:1 student to faculty ratio at the undergraduate level. With direct academic mentorship and opportunities for undergraduate research, UC Santa Barbara strikes a great balance between a small-school feel and big-school resources.

UC Santa Barbara has well established programs in Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering, along with some newer majors.

UC Santa Barbara is an excellent choice for engineering majors, and as an added bonus, the engineering buildings are on the oceanfront side of campus.

3. UCLA

U.S. News ranks UCLA 8th among all undergraduate business programs, and they still only managed to place 3rd among the best UC colleges for business. That just goes to show that California is a good place to go to school!

UCLA again spurns the Business Administration degree to offer a B.A. in Business Economics, with minors including Accounting and Entrepreneurship.

Some of the program’s distinctives include Startup UCLA, “a community in which students and alumni can develop and launch their ideas under the guidance of top entrepreneurs, investors and skill experts”.

2. UC San Diego

The Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD placed 22nd in the nation for undergraduate engineering majors, so yes, it’s a great engineering school.

Along with the traditional engineering majors, UC San Diego has an entire department for NanoEngineering and Structural Engineering.

Students can also apply for one of the “integrated five-year Bachelor’s/Master’s program for exceptional students with distinguished scholastic records”.

Starting freshman year, students can also expect to take at least one hands-on or experiential engineering course/lab per year.

With exceptional programs and rankings, UC San Diego isn’t just one of the best UC colleges for engineering—it’s one of the best in the nation.

1. UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley places 1st on this list and 3rd in the country (U.S. News). They offer 9 majors at the undergraduate level:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Bioengineering
• Civil & Environmental Engineering
• Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
• Engineering Science
• Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
• Materials Science & Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Nuclear Engineering

All engineering students can take advantage of three world class institutes. At the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, students practice design and creating prototypes.

The Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology provides resources for launching new companies, and the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership ignites innovation for future generations of engineers.

All of the best UC schools can launch engineering careers, 6 are ranked in the top 100 nationally, but only one offers the worldwide prestige of Berkeley.

We hope you found this article helpful, and we’ve got more resources for your college journey, including our UC school rankings in psychology and a review of the best UC business schools.