Academic Profile vs. the Doctoral Pipeline

Top 100 ECE programs. The big public campuses reach elite PhD production from well below the elite privates' Academic Rating. Hover any dot for its scores.

Both axes are percentile scores within the 301 scored programs. Three top-100 programs with no NSF doctoral record (Cal Poly SLO, Binghamton, UConn) score zero on PhD Productivity and are omitted. PhD Productivity: NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates, electrical and computer engineering, 2015-2024. Academic Rating: IPEDS and Common Data Set indicators. Degree counts: IPEDS Completions, CIP 14.09 + 14.10, 2022-2024. Source: College Transitions 2026 Undergraduate ECE Ranking (CIP 14.09 + 14.10 combined, 301 scored programs).

View data table

Rank	Institution	Type	Academic Rating	PhD Productivity	ECE PhDs 2015-24
1	Carnegie Mellon University	Private	88.5	93.9	46
2	Duke University	Private	94.6	92.3	38
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Private	89.7	98.8	96
4	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	Public	73.4	98.2	125
5	University of California-Berkeley	Public	70.4	96.0	130
6	Princeton University	Private	94.9	95.1	49
7	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Public	66.6	97.2	194
8	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	Public	81.0	94.0	108
9	Cornell University	Private	87.3	96.7	94
10	Purdue University-Main Campus	Public	73.2	94.4	136
11	Stevens Institute of Technology	Private	76.2	76.5	12
12	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Private	73.6	97.5	67
13	University of California-San Diego	Public	71.2	82.1	48
14	Northeastern University	Private	75.4	75.5	22
15	Boston University	Private	81.3	86.3	39
16	University of Notre Dame	Private	89.8	82.6	23
17	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	Public	70.6	85.1	50
18	Santa Clara University	Private	78.5	64.7	8
19	University of Maryland-College Park	Public	72.9	91.9	83
20	Stanford University	Private	85.8	93.1	44
21	University of California-Los Angeles	Public	72.1	88.2	64
22	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	Private	77.3	89.6	30
23	University of Florida	Public	78.9	91.0	85
24	The University of Texas at Austin	Public	69.2	87.9	75
25	University of Virginia-Main Campus	Public	86.4	92.0	60
26	Lehigh University	Private	81.6	85.3	22
27	Drexel University	Private	64.7	87.7	35
28	University of Rochester	Private	81.9	85.0	23
29	Villanova University	Private	76.6	73.0	13
30	University of Washington-Seattle Campus	Public	60.4	85.3	62
31	Ohio State University-Main Campus	Public	73.3	87.4	76
32	University of Wisconsin-Madison	Public	73.0	84.6	59
33	Columbia University in the City of New York	Private	84.7	82.7	23
34	Rochester Institute of Technology	Private	57.3	86.2	35
35	University of California-Santa Barbara	Public	76.4	80.6	34
36	California Institute of Technology	Private	89.7	96.8	53
37	Michigan Technological University	Public	56.9	87.8	26
38	North Carolina State University at Raleigh	Public	68.7	89.3	62
39	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	Public	65.9	73.2	31
40	University of California-Irvine	Public	67.9	64.0	19
41	Northwestern University	Private	93.2	73.7	15
42	Clarkson University	Private	60.7	83.6	16
43	Texas A&M University-College Station	Public	56.3	81.2	61
44	Rice University	Private	89.0	94.3	42
45	Missouri University of Science and Technology	Public	50.9	91.3	33
46	Colorado School of Mines	Public	56.1	83.4	20
47	University of California-Davis	Public	60.8	74.0	30
48	New Jersey Institute of Technology	Public	56.7	78.4	19
49	Iowa State University	Public	55.2	87.1	49
50	Case Western Reserve University	Private	74.0	84.8	22
51	The University of Texas at Dallas	Public	51.8	81.6	34
52	Johns Hopkins University	Private	84.5	80.5	18
53	University of California-Santa Cruz	Public	56.8	70.8	19
54	University of Southern California	Private	81.5	83.6	37
55	The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art	Private	70.7	88.0	20
56	Tufts University	Private	84.4	80.6	19
57	Bucknell University	Private	81.0	79.6	14
58	University of Pennsylvania	Private	91.5	84.0	26
59	University of Massachusetts-Amherst	Public	71.0	65.0	18
60	Illinois Institute of Technology	Private	60.0	86.5	20
61	Michigan State University	Public	67.6	78.2	42
62	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	Public	67.1	82.0	50
63	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	Public	66.5	86.5	68
64	Kettering University	Private	53.3	81.3	12
65	Milwaukee School of Engineering	Private	50.5	76.7	10
66	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	Public	70.7	84.6	38
67	Stony Brook University	Public	57.2	67.5	17
68	University of Dayton	Private	59.4	84.6	24
69	San Jose State University	Public	37.7	47.6	7
70	Lafayette College	Private	85.1	79.8	13
71	Vanderbilt University	Private	87.9	88.0	28
72	Clemson University	Public	68.6	79.7	33
73	University of Michigan-Dearborn	Public	36.5	71.4	11
74	University of Massachusetts-Lowell	Public	54.8	73.7	18
75	New York University	Private	78.8	49.3	8
76	CUNY City College	Public	40.0	73.2	18
77	University of California-Riverside	Public	57.4	60.5	14
78	Harvard University	Private	93.7	81.7	20
80	Oregon State University	Public	47.2	74.7	30
81	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	Public	42.8	78.2	28
82	University of San Diego	Private	62.5	60.0	6
83	University of Iowa	Public	61.9	64.9	17
84	University of Maryland-Baltimore County	Public	51.9	82.9	25
85	University of Utah	Public	48.3	77.3	31
86	New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology	Public	49.0	81.5	12
87	Florida Institute of Technology	Private	48.9	83.3	18
88	George Mason University	Public	50.6	57.1	13
89	University of Central Florida	Public	54.7	72.2	39
90	Grove City College	Private	69.1	76.3	9
91	Yale University	Private	89.5	67.9	10
92	Florida State University	Public	72.7	62.8	19
93	Wentworth Institute of Technology	Private	43.1	35.6	1
95	The University of Texas at Arlington	Public	33.2	68.3	23
97	Texas Tech University	Public	41.5	72.8	29
98	Western New England University	Private	50.1	75.5	9
99	University of Arizona	Public	47.5	73.6	35
100	University of the Pacific	Private	51.6	44.4	2