Top Universities for Automotive Engineering in the US

If you read Chapter 4 on “Automotive Engineering and Jobs”, you most probably are looking for the best universities in the US that provide a Post graduate degree in Automotive Engineering.

In order to make things easy for you, we have put together a comprehensive list of universities based upon certain criteria which will be described below.

The first list consists of universities that have a good MS in Automotive Engineering stream, some of the universities that made the cut are,

 

• University of Michigan
• Clemson University
• Kettering University
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Ohio State University
• Michigan Technological University
• Lawrence Technological University
• University of Louisville

 

As mentioned before these are universities with MS in Automotive Engineering, there are other universities which have very good MS in Mechanical Engineering programs that concentrate on Automotive Engineering. We have taken a different approach to identify these universities.

 

1. We identify the best programs by looking at the numerous design competitions that the universities are represented. Formula SAE, EV Formula SAE, SAE BAJA, SAE Snowmobile, etc.
2. The location of these universities and the recruitments happening from these universities. Remember in Chapter 2, we spoke about the most populated cities with mechanical engineering jobs, we have tapped into the same database and come up with the below universities.

 

NOTE: We have created a database with information of more than 100 universities that participated in these competitions. We have only listed the top 10 in this post. You can click here and get the entire document and fine-tune your university search.

Here is the top 10 universities that have consistently performed well in Formula SAE in 2016 & 2015.

 

• Oregon State University
• Michigan State University
• University of Wisconsin – Madison
• Missouri University of Science and Tech
• University of Michigan – Dearborn
• University of Florida
• University of Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh
• University of Cincinnati
• Auburn University
• San Jose State University

 

Formula SAE is the hardcore IC engine format of the race, if you are someone who is into hybrid or electric vehicles, then you need to look into EV-Formula SAE, the electric car competition. As you guess, we did take a look at it, and here are some of the consistent teams at the top in the year 2015 & 2016.

 

• University of Pennsylvania
• Missouri University of Science and Tech
• Massachusetts Institute of Tech
• University of Calif – Davis
• Purdue University – W Lafayette
• Carnegie Mellon University
• University of Akron
• University of Michigan – Dearborn
• Portland State University
• University of Washington

So here is the verdict, our favorite universities for Automotive Engineering are,

 

• University of Michigan
• Michigan State University
• Michigan Technological University
• Kettering University
• University of Michigan – Dearborn

If it is automotive, where else to start than Michigan State, automotive companies recruit engineers from these universities in a bunch. With very good Mechanical Engineering program and performing well in FSAE events and other competitions puts these five in a separate league

 

• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Missouri University of Science and Tech
• University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

 

These three have performed exceptionally well in the competitions and at the same time have excellent research opportunities available. If you are someone who is looking for Research funding, these should be your default options.

The next batch of three universities are

 

• Auburn University
• Oregon State University
• The University of Florida.

 

Excellent programs in addition to good curriculum and extracurricular activities make these a good place to pursue your Post Graduation Certification

If you are looking at electric vehicles, universities in California makes the cut as well.

 

• UC Davis
• UC Irvine
• UC Santa Cruz
• Cal Tech

Hope you now have a clear idea of how to choose your university. In case you have any questions feel free to reach out to us.

If you want to see how your profile compares with all these universities.

All the very best in your university search. Hope this is helpful, please leave comments in case you have any questions. 

P.S. At the end of the day, it is you who needs to get and network into these teams once you get into any of these universities. Once you do that and contribute, the experience will be more than enough to build your career.

 

Check out the List of Job opportunities for your Engineering domain