The day has finally come – your high school graduation day. It was a really great experience with your classmates, teachers, bullies, crushes, hot cheer dancers and many more. While the other kids opt to have their first jobs after high school, you have decided to go to college. You have talked to your parents about your brilliant career-driven idea and your parents loved it. They talked in a separate room for a while and then faced you with wide smiles that seem like grins of approval. They have given you the go signal for your chosen college degree, Mechanical Engineering. The course is a really broad discipline, which involves thorough research, development, design, construction, machines, tools, complex mathematics and many more. Mechanical Engineering has a highly technical nature and employers demand a lot from the credentials of an applicant. If you wish to make this a part of your career path, then you need to be sent to one of the best mechanical engineering colleges. You can send your letter of intent and other necessary requirements to these top 10 colleges specializing in mechanical engineering.

10. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering leads in the areas of fluid modeling and measurement, combustion and aerospace dynamics and propulsion for the more than 50 years. The department is currently a part of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, maintaining close ties with the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics.

9. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is currently committed to offer programs developing knowledge of engineering’s technical foundations, increase the enthusiasm to learn about the engineering profession, broaden the students’ understanding of social sciences and humanities, and equip them with impressive marketable skills. The school offers a one-year Master of Engineering program in aerospace engineering or mechanical engineering that allows the students to develop competence in the areas of current technology, engineering design and engineering science.

8. Purdue University – West Lafayette, West Lafayette, Indiana

Purdue University’s School of Mechanical Engineering has a graduate program considered as one of the oldest in the United States. It was founded in 1882 and it has been one of the first engineering schools to exist continuously. The School of Mechanical Engineering is currently organized to focus on areas such as acoustics and noise control, Combustion, Bioengineering, Energy Utilization and Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Propulsion, Design, Heat Transfer, Ventilation, Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration and many more.

7. University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

The Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering has research expenditures amounting to $24 million, allowing students and faculty members to focus on key fundamental areas like fluid mechanics, biomechanical science, solid mechanics, applied physics, thermodynamics and heat transfer, chemistry, computational science, dynamics and controls and applied mathematics. MechSE is currently offering baccalaureate degrees in mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics. It also offers master’s and doctoral degrees theoretical and applied mechanics and mechanical engineering.

6. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia Institute of Technology’s Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering is currently the oldest and second largest division among the ten in Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. Woodruff offers courses of instruction in mechanical engineering namely mechanics, engineering graphics, computing techniques, systems dynamics and control, creative decisions and design, dynamics of rigid bodies, thermodynamics, circuits and electronics, mechanics of materials, heat transfer, systems lab, experimental methods, engineering materials, manufacturing processes, capstone design, experimental engineering and energy systems.

5. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University of Michigan’s Mechanical Engineering Department is already 140 years old and the faculty continues to make strides when it comes to fundamental science and extends their boundaries in the emerging disciplines. Their $27 million budget in 2006 has put the faculty into focusing on areas such as Combustion and Heat Transfer, Biosystems, Design and Manufacturing, Environmental Sustainability, Fluid Mechanics, Dynamics and Vibrations, Materials and Solid Mechanics and many more. The department’s MS in Engineering requires a BS in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.

4. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

The Mechanical Engineering at California Institute of Technology has already proven a century-long record of excellence. The department is offering both undergraduate and graduate programs to train the world’s future technological innovators. Caltech’s research areas in mechanical engineering include mechanical systems, mechanics and fluid and thermal systems. The areas are being applied to the rich diversity of problems such as control of aircraft engines, bioengineering, vehicle structural design, earthquake occurrence, granular flows, jet noise reduction, robotics and its medical applications, navigation algorithms and many more.

3. University of California – Berkeley, Berkeley, California

The University of California – Berkeley was established in 1931. The Department of Mechanical Engineering is located at the Etcheverry Hall, Berkeley Campus. The National Science Foundation, different industries around Berkeley and government agencies primarily funded the department’s research projects. The department is offering a complete program of graduate studies and research in both innovative and traditional areas in mechanical engineering. It is also participating in the several interdisciplinary programs like environmental engineering and bioengineering. Areas of concentration include Computer Mechanics, Bioengineering, Dynamics and Controls, Fluid and Solid Mechanics, Environmental Engineering and many more.

2. Stanford University, Stanford, California

Stanford University’s Mechanical Engineering program, at the graduate level, integrates the academic course work with research. This is to prepare their scholars thoroughly in the field of mechanical engineering. Stanford’s Department of Mechanical Engineering focuses more on design for sustainability and human-centered design. The department centers its attention on the five engineering themes such as Biomedicine, Design, Energy, Computational Engineering and Multi-Scale Engineering.

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the most distinguished engineering schools in the United States for its cutting-edge ideas and philosophies when it comes to education. MIT’s Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program has its faculty members and students join force as a community of scholars focusing on creativity, innovation as well as the advanced professional study. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has eight graduate degrees namely MS in Mechanical Engineering, MS in Ocean Engineering, MS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, MS in Oceanographic Engineering, MS in Manufacturing, Naval Engineer’s Degree, Mechanical Engineer’s Degree and the highest academic degree, the Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Science program.