The Best Universities for PhDs in Electrical Engineering in the USA (2023) | FindAMasters.com

The Best Universities for PhDs in Electrical Engineering in the USA (2023)

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Why Study Electrical Engineering in the USA

There are many reasons why someone might want to study Electrical Engineering at a university in the USA. Here are just a few:

  • The USA has a robust and widely recognised educational setup at numerous Universities like MIT, Stanford, and Caltech, providing some of the best Electrical Engineering programmes.
  • The faculty at these highly-rated universities are renowned experts in their fields ensuring students benefit from superior mentorship & supervision for their advanced research work.
  • After earning this PhD degree, there's a multitude of sectors available that actively need skilled Electrical Engineers including – academia/research institutes/telecommunication sectors/automotive industries /energy firms amongst many others.
  • USA is at the forefront of technological advancements. This ensures access to challenging projects & innovative research work which often leads to transformational breakthroughs within Electrical Engineering domain.

The Best Universities for Electrical Engineering in the USA

The following tables give the 10 top universities in the USA for Electrical Engineering, according to global and local university rankings. It can show you which American universities are amongst the best in the world - and help you compare institutions on an international level.

This information is based on the latest rankings tables, researched and published by Times Higher Education, QS and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

Each ranking system uses its own methodology, with different factors having more or less influence on a university's result.

Our guide has more information on how to use international rankings to decide on the best research universities for PhD study.


Top 10 Universities in the USA for Electrical Engineering (Times Higher Education)
University USA Rank Global Rank
Harvard University 1 1
California Institute of Technology 2 6
University of California, Berkeley 3 3
Stanford University 4 2
Georgia Institute of Technology 5 11
Princeton University 6 9
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7 4
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 8 28
University of California, Los Angeles 9 16
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 10 18
This information is based on the research score from the latest rankings tables, researched and published by Times Higher Education. Visit their website for more information.

What should I know about the Times Higher Education rankings?

The Times Higher Education rankings are strong in academic focus and diverse teaching metrics, but do not include employer-specific metrics. Additionally, the rankings may not include all specialist institutions.


Top 10 Universities in the USA for Electrical Engineering (QS)
University USA Rank Global Rank
Harvard University 1 7
Stanford University 2 2
New York University 3 =83
University of Washington 4 63
University of California, Berkeley 5 3
Northwestern University 6 =118
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7 1
Columbia University 8 =45
Carnegie Mellon University 9 17
Princeton University 10 21
This information is based on the citations per paper score from the latest rankings tables, researched and published by QS World University Rankings. Visit their website for more information.

What should I know about the QS rankings?

The QS World University Rankings are designed to meet the needs of prospective students, with more weight given to student-centric metrics such as staff/student ratio, international recruitment and employer opinion. The rankings are balanced between qualitative and quantitative data, but give less weight to research than some other rankings.


Top 10 Universities in the USA for Electrical Engineering (ARWU)
University USA Rank Global Rank
Georgia Institute of Technology 1 4
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2 2
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 3 24
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 4 27
University of Maryland, College Park 5 42
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 6 7
University of California, Berkeley 7 1
Purdue University - West Lafayette 8 29
The University of Texas at Austin 9 51-75
Stanford University 10 3
This information is based on the number of papers published by an institution in an academic subject in journals, this is from the latest rankings tables, researched and published by Academic Ranking of World Universities. Visit their website for more information.

What should I know about the ARWU rankings?

The ARWU rankings reflect the presence of elite academics and the future academic success of graduates. However, they do not directly assess the quality of education at a university or take into account other aspects of university performance.


Last Updated: 26 September 2023