There are a lot of different ways we can evaluate universities and separate the best ones from the chaff. Most of the lists that I’ve come across use a “fluff” method, which is decided on a whole bunch of metrics that usually don’t help you get a job or help your education.

The approach here is much simpler; evaluate the universities on a single metric: ROI for the median applicant. You as the student are investing four years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars. The end goal is to get as high paying a job as possible and to be set up for further success. That further success can take the form of the experiences you have access to, the network you have access to, or even what kind of choices you have the flexibility to turn down.

Here's the quick and dirty run down on what you should be looking at when picking universities:

Prestige

There are a lot of *prestige games* in life and I would suggest choosing those things that make money when faced with a money vs prestige problem, but early on in life prestige is the easiest way to immediately signal to other high-value people that you belong there. Putting that fancy name on your resume or application automatically sends the signal to prospective employers that you’re smart (or smart enough) and have the skills they need. Everyone knows having Harvard on your resume is going to immediately set the first impression people have of you. It’s going to open doors for you.

In industry there are target schools and non-targets, and while this changes industry to industry and may be less prevalent in some, the difference still exists. If you went to just any old school you likely won’t be hearing back for an interview for top jobs. If you went to a non-target (which here means a highly respected school, that’s not on the firm’s traditional list of targets) you will have to network harder, get better grades, and generally outcompete the target school applicants. If you are a highly sought after employer like Google only hiring from the top universities is an easy way to filter down to the ”top applicants”.

Cost

Obviously there is a price people are willing to pay for prestige. For the overwhelming majority of those people, it seems to have paid off. Attendees at the Ivy League and the Browns leads to higher paying jobs on average. The problem comes with massively overpaying for a degree from one of these top universities, and then not earning an above average wage at the end of it. If you dropped $200,000 dollars for a private school education, then only earned $45,000 afterwards, you got played. Went to university for free? Better, but four years and $200,000 could have gone a lot further if you had started a business.

General rule of thumb is paying off the debt in 2 years, if you don’t have a reasonable chance of getting a job that will enable you to do that it simply doesn’t make sense. Keep in mind you have to pay it off post-tax!

Good Signs	Bad Signs
Post-Grad events like Homecoming	Commuter School
Post-Grad alumni networks	No school spirit
"Shared Experiences" like frosh week	No Traditions
Small University Town	Big City (no separate neighbourhood with lots of student living
Mixing between programs (do engineers hang out with non-engineering kids?)	Pass-Through insitutions (do people only go there for a year or two years?)
Traditions	High percentage of inernational students

Outside Perception

What is that university known for? For instance, while Harvard and Yale are prestigious institutions, it doesn’t make sense to pay the prestige premium and get an engineering degree from them. They are known for creating politicians and bankers, not software engineers.

Contrast that with hardcore technical institutions like MIT and Waterloo, which are known for their engineering programs. For undergrad you are better off sticking with the technical institutions and getting the technical prestige. If you decide you want an MBA later in life it would make sense to go to a place like Harvard, which is known for its bankers and MBA’s.

Network

If you are cold emailing or cold messaging people on LinkedIn sharing the same alma mater can be the thing that gives you the leg up on the competition. If you have nothing in common other than that, it’s still probably enough to get your foot in the door. This is usually a good way of figuring out the worth of the degree. Search through LinkedIn and find where the alumni end up working, then look at salaries on GlassDoor.

Obviously the more things you have in common the better. If you hit up an alumni from a totally different part of the country, that’s a bigger gap then someone from your hometown. If you try talking sports to someone who has no interest in sports, that’s not a good starting point.

Extra point here: the more cult-like the school following is the better. You’ll find this time and time again out in the wild; people hiring people from their university because they must be good! They went to X! I went to X and I’m good! Small university towns with an extreme amount of school spirit and community will be the most cult-like, while commuter schools in big cities are the least.

Research Opportunities

Even if you are not inclined to go into academia or you’re only looking to complete an undergraduate degree, the research opportunities should be a big draw for any university. If you can do research after your first year or upper years with a research group on campus that gives you exposure to the lab in a work environment, shows you how to get a paper published, and looks great on the resume.

The research opportunities plug directly into the prestige of the institution. When it comes to the top technical universities their prestige is usually driven in part by the research that comes out of those institutions. The more Nobel prizes your university wins, the greater its prestige, the more money gets thrown at it, and the more research opportunities are created.

Study Abroad Opportunities

These can be a great way to not only expand your horizons but get an even bigger name on your resume. I would recommend studying abroad for a semester or year if you’re able to go to a highly respected institution like National University of Singapore or ETH Zurich, and it doesn’t have a big impact on your finances. Going abroad to a university that isn’t internationally recognized can still be a fun time, but it might not add anything to your resume. One notable benefit of studying abroad is that your grades are typically Pass/Fail, meaning you’re able to spend less time on school while maintaining the same GPA. This obviously opens up more time for travel!

With all that in mind let’s look at the top picks in 2022:

1. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Tuition per year: $55,510 USD

That’s a hefty price tag, but you are getting the best engineering education in the world and immediate brand name recognition. At this price it’s absolutely worth it based on the outcomes even the worst MIT grads have. Whether you choose to go straight into industry or you stay in academia you are set up for success right from the get-go.

2. Stanford

Tuition per year: $37,620 USD

Again a big price tag, but Stanford has the benefit of being extremely prestigious, and producing some of the most successful minds of the 21st century. Even though Stanford is slightly less technically oriented than MIT it’s still produced a lot of Nobel prize winners, and has cranked out a lot of entrepreneurs. Easy integration with Silicon Valley and Sand Hill Road makes this the top pick for business-minded engineers.

3. Cambridge

Tuition per year: $12,407 USD

Cambridge just narrowly edges out Oxford based purely on its reputation as the more science oriented school of the two. It’s one of the oldest universities in the world and has played host to a huge number of Nobel prize winners.

4. Oxford

Brasenose College at the University of Oxford

Tuition per year: $12,407 USD

Oxford is older than Cambridge but has more of a reputation for business and law. Again it’s one of the top universities in the world with a very prestigious history, and is slightly closer to London.

5. Harvard

Tuition per year: $56,528 USD

Harvard obviously needs no introduction - it’s probably the most well known university in the world. The tuition is even higher than MIT’s, and for those prospective students looking at enrolling in engineering it probably doesn’t make sense to choose Harvard unless a) the overwhelming majority of your tuition is being covered without debt or b) you plan on doing an MBA at HBS later on. Harvard is much better known for business so if you’re picking engineering for your undergrad it may be better to go with MIT or Stanford, then do the MBA later on.

Top Engineering Universities of 2022