Mechanical Engineering & Robotics
What you'll do in college
You'll study the intersection of classical physics and modern automation. Expect foundational courses like statics, dynamics, and thermodynamics, heavily blended with electrical circuits, sensor integration, and computer programming. You'll spend plenty of time in machine shops, but also working with microcontrollers, actuators, and CAD software. Senior design projects often involve building autonomous vehicles, robotic arms, or a Formula SAE car as a team. The work bridges the gap between hardware and software, making it exhausting but incredibly rewarding when your creation moves on its own.
What you'll do after college
Grads work at robotics companies, automakers, consumer-product manufacturers, tech giants, and industrial automation firms. A typical day mixes CAD work, writing control code, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and debugging mechatronic systems. The work is tangible: your designs become physical machines that manufacture goods, assist in surgeries, or drive themselves.
Pay is strong, and the demand for engineers who understand both mechanical systems and the code that runs them is skyrocketing.
Famous graduates
- Gwynne Shotwell — President and COO of SpaceX; B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University
- Bill Nye — "The Science Guy" and science communicator; B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University
Selectivity vs. earnings
By acceptance rate
By SAT median
Earnings vs. selectivity rank
Majors in this category
| Major | Colleges | Degrees ▼ | Male/Female | Intl | 5yr Earn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanical Engineering & Robotics | 386 | 33,550 | 83% / 17% | 5% | $95,681 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 368 | 32,425 | 83% / 17% | 5% | $95,627 |
| Manufacturing Engineering | 26 | 386 | 81% / 19% | 10% | $87,803 |
| Robotics Engineering | 18 | 365 | 81% / 19% | 7% | |
| Mechanical Engineering (Course 2) | 1 | 104 | 47% / 53% | 5% | $133,881 |
| Engineering Mechanics | 5 | 65 | 91% / 9% | 9% | $92,989 |
| Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics | 1 | 63 | 67% / 33% | 10% | $117,027 |
| Electromechanical Engineering | 3 | 37 | 92% / 8% | 5% | $89,728 |
| Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | 1 | 37 | 62% / 38% | 14% | |
| Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering | 1 | 21 | 81% / 19% | 48% | |
| Manufacturing and Design Engineering | 1 | 16 | 38% / 62% | 12% | |
| Robotics | 1 | 14 | 71% / 29% | 7% | |
| Mechatronics Engineering | 3 | 6 | 50% / 50% | 0% | |
| Engineering (Robotics) | 1 | 4 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $60,398 |
| Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering | 1 | 4 | 100% / 0% | 0% | |
| Geomechanics | 1 | 3 | 33% / 67% | 0% |