199 Engineering Schools with Swim Teams, Ranked

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Add your swimmer’s times to compare fit across 199 schools. Then add academics and preferences in Match to shape the ranking.

Top 50 by division

40 D1 · 0 D2 · 10 D3

Athletic division does not determine the engineering rank.

Highest-ranked D2 program

#64 Colorado Mines

Median grad earnings $77,715 · admits 61%.

Current top-25 range

3% to 17% acceptance

$73,446 to $128,868 in median grad earnings.

Connor Jaeger is an easy example to point to. He swam at Michigan from 2011 to 2014, won three NCAA titles, and earned All-America honors ten times. He also made two Olympic finals in the 1500 freestyle, finishing sixth in London and taking silver in Rio.

Jaeger completed a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at Michigan in 2014 and returned for a Master of Management at Ross in 2016. Michigan is No. 24 on this list. He now works in real estate development at Crow Holdings and has spoken about how his engineering and management degrees prepared him for that work.

Nic Fink started at Georgia in 2010 and swam four years for Jack Bauerle. Some of his biggest results came well after college. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, he won the mixed 4x100 medley and took silver in the 100 breaststroke and men's 4x100 medley.

Fink's engineering work did not end when he left Georgia. He completed a master's in electrical and electronics engineering at Georgia Tech in 2022 and now works full time for Quanta Utility Engineering Services. He still competes professionally. Georgia ranks No. 48 on this page.

Cason Wilburn

Notre Dame · Civil & Environmental Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Desirae Mangaoang

Texas A&M · Mechanical Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Emma Gravgaard

Pittsburgh · Industrial Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Hannah Ownbey

Auburn · Biomedical Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Hedda Grelz

Houston · Mechanical Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Isaac Poole

Grand Canyon · Mechanical Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Jack Dahlgren

Missouri · Mechanical Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Jackson Nester

Cleveland State · Mechanical Engineering

Scholar All-America · 4 seasons

Division I

Division I accounts for 40 of the top 50 schools. California is the highest-ranked D1 school at No. 2, followed by Penn, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, Northeastern, Cornell, and Northwestern.

Penn, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Brown are the five Ivy League schools in the top 50. The Patriot League also has four: Boston University, Bucknell, Lehigh, and Lafayette.

Division II

No Division II school makes the top 50 in this ranking. That says more about the formula than it does about whether D2 has good engineering options.

Colorado School of Mines is the highest-ranked D2 school at No. 64, with median engineering earnings of $77,715. Its acceptance rate of 60.7 percent lowers its position in a ranking that gives substantial weight to selectivity.

There are 21 D2 schools on the full list. For swimmers looking at this level, the specific program's ABET accreditation, access to nearby employers, and support for co-ops and internships may matter more than the overall rank.

Division III

Ten Division III schools make the top 50. MIT is first overall, and Carnegie Mellon is third. Johns Hopkins ranks No. 11, Caltech No. 14, Tufts No. 17, NYU No. 23, and Wash U No. 26.

The UAA has five schools on the full list: Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Wash U, Rochester, and Case Western Reserve. Maine Maritime Academy is No. 44. Its median engineering earnings of $97,705 are the highest among the D3 schools on this page, likely helped by the school's specialized maritime programs.

A swimmer considering D3 is not giving up strong engineering options. Several of the highest-ranked schools on this page compete at that level.

Can you realistically swim and study engineering?

Yes. Engineering is one of the harder majors to pair with a Division I training schedule, but swimmers do it every year. The programs that graduate engineering swimmers on time tend to share the same traits: flexible lab scheduling, advising that understands the athlete calendar, and a coach who works with the engineering department when finals collide with travel. You can't read those traits off a ranking, though, which is why the questions further down this page are worth taking to each coach and adviser directly. The swimmers who struggle usually arrive without a four-year plan; the ones who finish map the degree out the way they map a training block, before freshman year starts.

What is the specific scheduling conflict between engineering and swimming?

Lab sections are the hardest conflict. Engineering lab courses often meet in long afternoon blocks, which can create conflicts with practice on the same days. Senior capstone and design projects add team meetings across the academic year that are hard to reschedule around travel. Internship recruiting at engineering firms is concentrated in the fall, overlapping early-season training and the first conference meets. And for students who pursue a PE license, the FE exam can fall near championship season in the spring.

What makes an engineering program easier to combine with swimming?

A ranking can't measure this, so treat it as a checklist rather than a verdict. A few features tend to make the four years pace better for an athlete. Flexible lab scheduling, or multiple sections of a required lab, so a course isn't offered only during afternoon practice. A co-op or internship structure the school builds into the degree, so industry experience doesn't have to be squeezed into a summer training block. Engineering advising that has worked with athletes before and can sequence the degree around travel. And whether the school admits students directly into an engineering college, which changes when and how you commit to the major. None of these show up in earnings data — you confirm them by asking the coach and the engineering advising office, school by school.

Is D3 a better fit for swimmers in engineering?

For engineering specifically, D3 deserves serious weight. On this list, MIT ranks first, Carnegie Mellon third, Johns Hopkins eleventh, and Caltech fourteenth — all Division III, all ahead of most of the Ivy League on engineering outcomes. That is a real signal for a swimmer weighing academics: the strongest engineering outcomes here are not concentrated in Division I. What D3 changes about the athletic experience — roster size, how deep the recruiting pool runs, how the season is scheduled — varies by program, so treat those as questions for each coach rather than a rule about the division.

What does admission actually require at the top programs?

The top of this list is made up of very selective schools — the acceptance rates in the table run well under 20 percent, several in the low single digits. A recruited swimmer still has to clear the school's academic bar. A coach's support helps you through admissions, but it does not replace the academic review, and how much it helps varies by school and by how each program reviews athletes. Some universities admit students directly into an engineering college rather than through general admission, which can make the engineering-specific bar higher than the school's overall rate — worth checking on each school on your list, since it changes what your application needs to show. A competitive profile for these programs generally means the most advanced math and science your high school offers and evidence you can carry a heavy quantitative load.

Does the Engineering ranking reflect specific engineering disciplines?

The Engineering ranking on this list is at the parent-category level and does not separate by specialization. MIT, California, Carnegie Mellon, Penn, Stanford, Cornell, and Columbia each offer multiple engineering disciplines, but the available majors and ABET accreditation status vary by institution. Verify your intended program in ABET's accredited-program directory and on the school's engineering department site. Georgia Tech and Duke are particular flagships for biomedical engineering. Michigan is an aerospace and mechanical standout with a separately ranked College of Engineering. Caltech at fourteenth is a small but elite program with strong applied physics and chemical engineering concentrations. A recruit focused on a specific discipline should verify the department's faculty and graduate placement in that discipline before the university's overall rank alone decides the choice.

What do people who swam and studied engineering say about it?

Connor Jaeger earned a bachelor's in mechanical engineering at Michigan in 2014 and a master's in management in 2016, then went into real estate development at Crow Holdings. He has said in a Real Estate NJ profile that the engineering degree and the team-design work around it prepared him for the second career. Nic Fink, still competing after his Paris 2024 medal haul, completed his Georgia Tech master's in electrical and electronics engineering in December 2022 and works full-time as an engineer at Quanta Utility Engineering Services while continuing to race. Both swimmers finished engineering degrees under championship training loads. Both are using the degrees now.

Will a college coach let me major in engineering?

Some coaches support it and some push back, and the pushback is almost always about the schedule, not about the swimmer. Engineering labs meet in long afternoon blocks, and fall internship recruiting overlaps the early season, so a coach who wants everyone in the same afternoon practice may steer recruits toward a lighter major. That is a preference, not a rule, and it varies a lot from program to program. Ask directly during recruiting: how many swimmers on the current roster major in engineering, have any finished the degree on time, and how do afternoon labs work with the practice schedule. A coach who has coached engineers before will answer plainly. A coach who stays vague is telling you how the program actually runs, which is worth knowing before you commit.

How do I tell which programs actually support engineering majors?

You will not find this in a ranking. You find it by asking two different offices. Ask the coach how many swimmers on the current roster study engineering and whether any have graduated on time. Then ask the engineering advising office, separately, how they handle lab sections that collide with travel and whether they have worked with athletes before. Two structural signs help. Whether the school admits students directly into an engineering college, a higher and more specialized bar than general admission, and whether it runs a co-op program, where a multi-month engineering placement is built into the degree. A program that supports engineering majors will have specific answers. A program that does not will keep it general.