The field of electrical engineering encompasses professionals who design, develop, test and supervise the manufacturing of electrical equipment like radar, navigation, communications, power generation and more. Students interested in such careers will find this page features a handy list of prestigious online electrical engineering degree programs. On the bottom of the page you can access our school directory, which will allow you to conduct extensive searches into engineering education as a whole.
- School Search
- Accreditation Agencies
- Career Options
- Notable Schools
School Search
Accredited Online Colleges Database
Accreditation Agencies
In addition to regional academic accrediting organizations for colleges and universities there are specialized accrediting boards for particular disciplines. In the case of electrical engineering, there is only one accrediting organization:
Career Options
Employment for electrical engineers over the next 10 years is expected to be about 4 percent. Students graduating with this sort of engineering degrees will have the opportunity to choose from a number of career paths. The positions listed in the table below are the electrical engineering occupations with the highest number of people employed.
| WORK ENVIRONMENT | NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT | MEAN HOURLY WAGE | MEAN ANNUAL WAGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architectural and Related Services | $36,470 | $44.49 | $92,540 |
| Navigational, Measuring, Electromedical, Instruments Mftg. | $14,820 | $46.12 | $95,930 |
| Power Generation & Transmission | $14,780 | $41.61 | $86,560 |
| Semiconductor & Electrical Mftg. | $12,860 | $47.86 | $99,540 |
| Aerospace Product & Parts Mftg. | $7,550 | $48.96 | $101,840 |
Figures from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2012
Notable Schools
Picking a school can be a daunting task, especially when considering the sheer number of accredited colleges there are across the nation. Our database below can help with narrowing down your options for your specific program. In addition, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most notable online and campus-based schools offering degrees in this subject to help you begin your school search.
Online
Thanks to advances in communication technology, it is now possible to earn a degree in electrical engineering online from highly regarded colleges and universities. In this section you will find several such programs.
University of Nort Dakota
Grand Forks, North Dakota / Online
Ranked by U.S. News and World Report and fully accredited by ABET, the University of North Dakota online Electrical Engineering program enrolls new student in August, January and May. The program estimates it will take six years to complete the required 136 credits. The program does requires students to attend some amount of on-campus labs – somewhere between five and fourteen total – all of which are held during the summer.
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York / Online
Part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, the Stony Brook University electrical engineering program is designed for individuals who already possess an associate’s degree in a related field. Princeton Review considers the university to be one of the Best Value Colleges for 2014. The school’s close proximity to Brookhaven National Laboratory and Manhattan give the university access to resources unavailable to other schools.
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona / Online
Ranked number nine by U.S. News and World Report for their online Bachelor’s Degree program Arizona State University offers a fully accredited degree in electrical engineering to students around the world. The program is taught by award-winning faculty from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering . ASU is one of the largest American universities, with an enrollment of more than 73,000 students.
Campus Only
Generally speaking, the best electrical engineering programs are still exclusively found in traditional classroom settings. The colleges and universities listed in this section are considered the best of the best by ranking organizations like U.S. News, Forbes and the Princeton Review. Each of the schools listed here offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Consistently ranked in the top ten by U.S. News and World Report, M.I.T. is universally considered the premier engineering school in the world. At M.I.T. the electrical engineering and computer sciences are combined in a single department, with more than 20,000 alumni in the field, many of them in leadership positions. It’s worth noting that his powerhouse school is on the small side population-wise, with total undergraduate attendance at 4,500 students.
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Renown as a top flight university, Northwestern’s position in the hierarchy of electrical engineering programs is unquestioned. Many of Northwestern’s 8,000 undergraduates attend one of the two campuses located on the shores of Lake Michigan; the school is often considered one of the most beautiful in the world.
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
The focus of Caluech is now and always has been science and engineering. Ranked in the top 20 undergraduate schools by virtually every ranking body, Forbes they are, in some senses, the west coast twin of M.I.T. Caltech is the home of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), whose faculty and alumni have won 33 Nobel Prizes.