Materials Engineering Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Materials Engineering maps to BLS occupations averaging about $134,642, with roughly 2,760 workers nationwide in those roles. About 4,793 bachelor's completions in IPEDS 2023; median program completion runs near 57%.
Key Statistics
Materials Engineering: what the data shows
Common questions about materials engineering degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a materials engineering degree?
A Materials Engineering program is classified under NCES CIP 22.1418 in the 22.0014 field family (22.14).
IPEDS counted 4,793 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
How long does it take to get a materials engineering degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 22.1418 in our file:
- 5,166 Associate (24.2% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 4,793 Bachelor's (22.5% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
- 10,661 Master's (50.0% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
- 721 Doctorate (3.4% of IPEDS total)—varies by program
Time to completion depends on enrollment intensity and transfer credits; figures above describe credential type, not calendar time for every student.
What do you learn in materials engineering?
O*NET skill ratings for occupations mapped to this major emphasize Complex Problem Solving, Science, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Writing, and related competencies. See the Skills section for the full list in our extract.
What degree do you need?
For Materials Engineers (top mapped occupation), O*NET incumbent surveys in our career profile report these education credentials most often: Some college (29%), High School or Equivalent (27%), Bachelors Degree (22%).
O*NET education distributions describe incumbent workers, not minimum legal or employer requirements.
What jobs can you get with a materials engineering degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Materials Engineering to the BLS roles below. Employment is U.S. OEWS; median wage is national May 2024 where published in our extract.
| Occupation | U.S. employment | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Materials Engineers | 22,770 | $108,310 |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a materials engineering degree worth it?
Among schools reporting in our Scorecard extract, median published in-state tuition is $11,592 and median net price is $17,044.
We do not score "worth" on opinion—compare debt, earnings, wages for mapped occupations, and completion data above against your cost and career target.
Institutions
Information about the types of higher education institutions that grant degrees in Materials Engineering and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$11,592 Median In-State Public
$62,588 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Materials Engineering majors are, on average, $11,592 for in-state public colleges, and $62,588 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Materials Engineering programs.
Institutions awarding the most Materials Engineering degrees
| # | Institution | State | Completions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgetown University | DC | 1,476 |
| 2 | University of Southern California | CA | 1,050 |
| 3 | New York University | NY | 1,017 |
| 4 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | 1,003 |
| 5 | University of California-Berkeley | CA | 989 |
| 6 | Columbia University in the City of New York | NY | 899 |
| 7 | Harvard University | MA | 807 |
| 8 | George Washington University | DC | 759 |
| 9 | Loyola University Chicago | IL | 748 |
| 10 | Washington University in St Louis | MO | 685 |
IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), all award levels for this CIP in our extract.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
4,793 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Materials Engineering from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Materials Engineering.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | AZ | 64,398 |
| 2 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | 59,099 |
| 3 | University of Central Florida | FL | 59,095 |
| 4 | Arizona State University Digital Immersion | AZ | 49,000 |
| 5 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | OH | 44,617 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Materials Engineering programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Paso Community College | TX | $3,274 |
| 2 | Southern Maine Community College | ME | $3,797 |
| 3 | Salt Lake Community College | UT | $4,257 |
| 4 | University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez | PR | $5,274 |
| 5 | University of Central Florida | FL | $6,368 |
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Materials Engineering programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ogden-Weber Technical College | UT | $1,614 |
| 2 | California State University-Los Angeles | CA | $4,113 |
| 3 | El Paso Community College | TX | $4,154 |
| 4 | University of Florida | FL | $6,351 |
| 5 | California State University-Northridge | CA | $7,599 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Materials Engineering programs.
Graduation Rates
56.64% Median Graduation Rate (150% of normal time)
56.42% Average Graduation Rate
221 Institutions Reporting
44.77% - 69.32% Interquartile Range
Graduation/completion rates for Materials Engineering programs across institutions.
Where students complete this major (IPEDS)
Bachelor's-level completions (IPEDS Completions, award level 5) summed by institution state. State is taken from IPEDS Directory (HD2023) for each reporting institution.
Geographic concentration
The largest number of reported bachelor's completions for Materials Engineering is in NY (497 completions). That state represents about 10.4% of U.S. bachelor's completions reported for this CIP in the IPEDS file we use.
Among states, the highest concentration relative to all bachelor's degrees awarded in-state is AK (0.29% of that state's bachelor's completions).
Top states by count of bachelor's completions for this CIP (IPEDS).
| State | Bachelor's completions (this CIP) | % of U.S. total (this CIP) | % of state's all bachelor's |
|---|---|---|---|
| NY | 497 | 10.4% | 0.18% |
| FL | 485 | 10.1% | 0.21% |
| CA | 404 | 8.4% | 0.09% |
| AZ | 394 | 8.2% | 0.28% |
| VA | 344 | 7.2% | 0.28% |
| MA | 225 | 4.7% | 0.18% |
| MI | 206 | 4.3% | 0.18% |
| PA | 186 | 3.9% | 0.11% |
| WI | 173 | 3.6% | 0.23% |
| IN | 160 | 3.3% | 0.15% |
| MD | 154 | 3.2% | 0.21% |
| WA | 151 | 3.1% | 0.22% |
| TX | 142 | 3.0% | 0.05% |
| OH | 95 | 2.0% | 0.07% |
| NJ | 94 | 2.0% | 0.11% |
| AL | 89 | 1.9% | 0.13% |
| IL | 84 | 1.8% | 0.06% |
| TN | 84 | 1.8% | 0.11% |
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 22.1418 in the survey year used in our extract (21,341 total across levels below).
- 5,166 Associate (24.2% of IPEDS total)
- 4,793 Bachelor's (22.5% of IPEDS total)
- 10,661 Master's (50.0% of IPEDS total)
- 721 Doctorate (3.4% of IPEDS total)
Source: IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), summed by award level for this CIP.
Careers & Jobs
Occupations linked to this major in our degree→career mapping, with wages and employment from processed BLS career profiles in this repo.
Across these BLS occupations, employment-weighted mean pay is about $134,642. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Materials Engineering graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| Materials Engineers | $134,642 | 22,770 |
Open each occupation for full career profile charts and industry breakdowns on EDsmart Data.
Employment
Wages and industry mix below use BLS OEWS data for occupations linked to this major in our mapping—not a graduate earnings survey.
Yearly Income for Common Jobs
$134,642 Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Materials Engineering majors is $134,642.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Materials Engineering majors.
Occupations by Share
2,760 2023 Workforce
The number of Materials Engineering graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Materials Engineering by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Materials Engineering in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Materials Engineering.
Age distribution for Materials Engineering degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
4,793 Total Degrees Awarded
1,385 Male (28.90%)
3,408 Female (71.10%)
Gender distribution of Materials Engineering degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
2,391 White (49.89%)
995 Hispanic or Latino (20.76%)
586 Black or African American (12.23%)
255 Asian (5.32%)
209 Two or More Races (4.36%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Materials Engineering degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Materials Engineering are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Materials Engineering.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Materials Engineering field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Materials Engineering majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Materials Engineering majors.
Skills Bar Chart
This bar chart shows the same information as the radar chart, displaying the importance of each skill.
Skill importance ratings for Materials Engineering majors.
About
Materials Engineering
In 2023, 4,793 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Materials Engineering.
CIP Code
22.1418 - Materials Engineering
What the data shows
Women earned 62.5% of 68,755 Materials Engineering completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $134,642. The largest mapped role by headcount is Materials Engineers (22,770 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $11,592 in-state at public colleges and $62,588 at private institutions for programs in this field.
Data Sources
This page uses data from the following sources:
- College Scorecard - U.S. Department of Education
- Institutional characteristics, costs, completion rates, and earnings data
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: collegescorecard.ed.gov
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
- Employment and wage data by occupation
- Latest data: May 2024
- Source: bls.gov/oes
- O*NET Online - U.S. Department of Labor
- Occupational skills, knowledge, abilities, and work activities
- Database version: 28.0 (August 2023)
- Source: onetcenter.org
- IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) - National Center for Education Statistics
- Institutional data, completions, enrollment, and financial aid
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: nces.ed.gov/ipeds
- Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)
- Demographic and workforce data
- Latest data: 2023 ACS 5-Year Estimates
- Source: census.gov/acs
Data Processing: All data has been processed, cleaned, and aggregated for presentation. Where specific data points are unavailable, estimates are based on available data and clearly marked.
Last Updated: Data reflects the most recent available information as of January 2025.
Methodology
Data for this profile is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard dataset, IPEDS completion data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.
All financial figures are adjusted for inflation and represent the most recent available data. Employment and wage data are from the most recent Census Bureau ACS PUMS estimates.