Bachelor's · Notre Dame, Indiana
Is Mechanical Engineering at University of Notre Dame worth it?
High confidence High confidence: 100+ graduates behind the earnings figures.
The verdict · all families, in-state, half paid with loans
Pays back fast: graduates typically recover the cost in about 2.5 years.
- Earnings 1 year after graduating
- $88,783
- Treasury AY2020-21, AY2021-22 pooled earnings cohort measured in CY2022, CY2023, inflation adjusted to 2024 dollars
- Earnings 4 years after graduating
- $107,261
- Treasury AY2017-2018, AY2018-2019 pooled earnings cohort measured in CY2022, CY2023, inflation adjusted to 2024 dollars
- Typical federal debt at graduation
- $15,600
- NSLDS pooled AY2022-23, AY2023-24 cohort
- Net cost to graduate, all families
- $107k (likely $107k – $107k)
- AcadYr 2024-25, reported in IPEDS DCY2025-26
- Earnings bump, year 4
- $69k a year vs high-school graduates aged 25–34 in IN
- 2023 ACS 5-year pooled, adjusted to 2024 dollars
- Payback
- 2.5 years (likely 2.2–3.0)
- Bump vs net cost plus loan interest
- 10-year net return
- $391k (likely $298k – $488k)
- Today's dollars
- 20-year net return
- $1.20M (likely $980k – $1.44M)
- Today's dollars
- Odds of finishing (school-wide)
- 95%
- Fall 2019 or AcadYr 2019-20 cohort (differs by institutional calendar), reported in IPEDS DCY2025-26
- Borrowers making progress / in default, 2 years in
- not reported / ≤ 20%
- NSLDS AY2016-17, AY2017-18 pooled cohorts measured in 2018-19, 2019-20
Change income, residency or loans Compare Mechanical Engineering at other schools
Other majors at University of Notre Dame
- Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods (First professional)$182,186
- Business Administration, Management and Operations (First professional)$166,604
- Finance and Financial Management Services (Bachelor's)$160,313
- Finance and Financial Management Services (First professional)$152,667
- Computational Science (First professional)$145,374
- Applied Mathematics (First professional)$143,935
- Computer and Information Sciences, General (Bachelor's)$142,970
- Law (First professional)$142,699
- Marketing (First professional)$137,699
- Engineering Science (Master's)$137,274
- Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods (Bachelor's)$124,557
- Mathematics and Statistics, Other (Bachelor's)$123,663
Mechanical Engineering at other schools in Indiana
- Purdue University-Main Campus$102,572
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology$95,983
- Purdue University Northwest$91,229
- Valparaiso University$90,583
- Indiana University-Indianapolis$88,960
- Trine University$86,997
- University of Evansville$85,851
- Purdue University Fort Wayne$85,075
- University of Southern Indiana$73,763