Best Civil Engineer programs in Tennessee, ranked by enrollment
Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines,.
8 schools in Tennessee run programs that feed this job, graduating 352 people a year. The job pays a median of $95,910 in Tennessee across about 5,790 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Tennessee that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
1 programs in Tennessee that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Tennessee (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Tennessee page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Civil Engineering, Generalmain feeder CIP 14.0801In Tennessee → | 352 | 100.0% | 8 | $69,574 | $24,625 |
Top 8 schools in Tennessee
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 4 of the 8 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The University of Tennessee - Knoxville Knoxville, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 128 | Civil Engineering, General | $64,386 | 74% | — | 42% |
| 2 | Tennessee Technological University Cookeville, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 87 | Civil Engineering, General | $63,577 | 58% | — | 76% |
| 3 | University of Memphis Memphis, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 43 | Civil Engineering, General | $64,780 | 51% | — | 72% |
| 4 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 40 | Civil Engineering, General | — | 94% | $14,854 | 6% |
| 5 | The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga Chattanooga, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 20 | Civil Engineering, General | $65,419 | 50% | — | 81% |
| 6 | Tennessee State University Nashville, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 13 | Civil Engineering, General | — | 34% | — | 70% |
| 7 | Lipscomb University Nashville, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 12 | Civil Engineering, General | — | 72% | $24,309 | 68% |
| 8 | Christian Brothers University Memphis, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 9 | Civil Engineering, General | — | 55% | $11,063 | 87% |
All 8 schools in Tennessee
Every school in Tennessee with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The University of Tennessee - Knoxville | Knoxville | Public | 128 | 1 |
| Tennessee Technological University | Cookeville | Public | 87 | 1 |
| University of Memphis | Memphis | Public | 43 | 1 |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville | Private not-for-profit | 40 | 1 |
| The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga | Chattanooga | Public | 20 | 1 |
| Tennessee State University | Nashville | Public | 13 | 1 |
| Lipscomb University | Nashville | Private not-for-profit | 12 | 1 |
| Christian Brothers University | Memphis | Private not-for-profit | 9 | 1 |
What civil engineers earn in Tennessee
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $100,840. Tennessee pays below the national figure.
1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.
Metro areas in Tennessee
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Civil Engineers page.
How to become a Civil Engineer
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Tennessee
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 7 majors mapped to Civil Engineers7 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 14.0801Civil Engineering, General
- 14.0802Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- 14.0803Structural Engineering
- 14.0804Transportation and Highway Engineering
- 14.0805Water Resources Engineering
- 14.0899Civil Engineering, Other
- 14.3301Construction Engineering
Common questions
Answers for people weighing civil engineers programs in Tennessee.
What degree do you need to become a Civil Engineer?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Civil Engineering, General, which awarded 352 degrees in Tennessee in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Civil Engineer?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Civil Engineering. Together they graduate about 352 people a year in Tennessee.
How much do civil engineers earn in Tennessee?+
The median is $95,910 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 4.9% below the U.S. median of $100,840. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for civil engineers growing?+
BLS projects a +5.0% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 23,600 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Tennessee?+
8 institutions in Tennessee reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do civil engineers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Engineer, Civil Engineer, County Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Traffic Engineer among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 17-2051.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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