Milwaukee School of Engineering

Overview

Rankings

• #1 Best Colleges in Wisconsin
• #1 Best Bachelor's Programs in Wisconsin
• #1 Best Master's Programs in Wisconsin
• #1 Best Computer Science Colleges in Wisconsin
• #1 Best Data Science Colleges in Wisconsin
• #3 Best Business Colleges in Wisconsin
• #7 Best Nursing Colleges in Wisconsin
• #9 Best Colleges in Great Lakes

Academics & Admissions

Is It Hard to Get Into Milwaukee School of Engineering? Acceptance Rate & Requirements

Milwaukee School of Engineering, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, offers a realistic path to admission, with roughly 59% of applicants receiving an offer. Admitted students typically arrive with a mid-range ACT score around 27. The graduation rate is roughly 69%.

Acceptance Rate

59%

Retention Rate

84%

ACT Midpoint

27

Full-Time Faculty

60%

Faculty Salary (mo)

$10,194

Student–Faculty Ratio

13:1

Diversity Index

0.53

First-Gen Students

24%

Applicants

5,478

Admitted

3,477

Inside the Admissions Office

School-reported Common Data Set · 2025-26

The acceptance rate tells you how hard Milwaukee School of Engineering is to get into. Its Common Data Set tells you what happens once you are admitted: how many students say yes, how many arrived without test scores, and whether applying early tilts the odds. 22% of admitted students go on to enroll here, making it a school most admitted students ultimately pass on.

Yield Rate

22%

of admits enroll

Submitted SAT

11%

of enrolled freshmen

Submitted ACT

20%

of enrolled freshmen

Cost & Financial Aid

How Much Does It Cost to Attend Milwaukee School of Engineering? Tuition, Net Price & Aid

Published tuition at Milwaukee School of Engineering is $50,480, but few families pay that. The number to watch is net price, what students actually pay each year after federal grants and institutional scholarships. Here it averages about $22,453. Students from families earning under $30,000 typically pay closer to $11,607 after need-based grants. The median graduate leaves with about $27,000 in federal student loans.

In-State Tuition

$50,480

Out-of-State

$50,480

Avg Net Price

$22,453

Median Debt

$27,000

Pell Grant Rate

24%

Federal Loan Rate

56%

Students Like You

Tell us a little about yourself to see what students like you have typically experienced at Milwaukee School of Engineering — the net price for your income, your admission odds, and the outcomes that follow. These are patterns from federal data, not predictions.

Graduate Outcomes

Is Milwaukee School of Engineering Worth It? Graduate Earnings & ROI

Ten years out, alumni of Milwaukee School of Engineering earn a median of $89,070, well above the national average for bachelor's degree holders.

6 Years After Entry

$75,114

8 Years

$81,364

10 Years

$89,070

Debt-to-Earnings

0.3x

Earning > $25K

89%

Social Mobility

Data: Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card · 30M+ anonymized tax records

Does Milwaukee School of Engineering Drive Upward Mobility? Economic Mobility & Low-Income Outcomes

Milwaukee School of Engineering is a genuine engine of upward mobility. Its mobility rate, the share of students who start in the bottom income quintile and climb to the top, is 1.88%, well above the typical college. Access is narrower: only about 3.8% of students come from the bottom income quintile, typical of more selective, higher-income institutions. Among bottom-quintile students who attend, roughly 50.1% go on to reach the top of the income ladder. The median family income of students sits near $91,700, a snapshot of the campus's socioeconomic mix.

Mobility Rate

1.88%

Bottom 20% → Top 20%

Success Rate

50.1%

If bottom 20% get in

From Bottom 20%

3.8%

Share of students

Parent Median Income

$124,588

today's $ (2015 cohort data)

Social Capital

Data: Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas

How Connected Is Milwaukee School of Engineering? Social Capital & Cross-Class Networks

Social capital, the web of cross-class friendships that researchers link to long-run upward mobility, runs high at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Its economic connectedness score is 1.71, where about 1.0 is the national norm. Its friending bias is low (-0.01), a sign that students from different economic backgrounds actually mix rather than self-segregate. Around 5% of students take part in civic and volunteering activity.

Economic Connectedness

1.71

Cross-class friendships

Friending Bias

-0.01

Lower = more inclusive

Volunteering Rate

5.4%

Support Ratio

1.00

Community support

Innovation & Knowledge Creation

Patents, inventors, and research influence · Opportunity Insights & Times Higher Education

Milwaukee School of Engineering produces inventors at an exceptional rate — the top 5% of U.S. colleges, with 122 patents tied to its graduates.

Inventor Rate

6.15%

Top 5% nationally

Patents Produced

122

Linked to graduates

Patent Citations

104

Downstream influence

Inventors From Low-Income

2.56%

Bottom-20% families

Institutional Finances

Data: NCES IPEDS

Federal Grants

$4,333,867

Investment Income

$-18,439,720

Top Programs

The fields Milwaukee School of Engineering awards the most degrees in, by share of completions. Where federal field-of-study data exists, we show what graduates in that major earned early in their careers. Each links to its degree guide — or see what someone with your income, scores, and major would pay and earn here in the Students Like You simulator.

• Engineering 70% $86,568 early-career
• Business & Marketing 12% $74,862 early-career
• Computer Science & IT 9%
• Health Professions 7% $71,327 early-career

Early-career median earnings by major (typically 1–2 years after completion, bachelor's level where available), in today's dollars (CPI-adjusted). Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard field of study. Distinct from the school-wide 10-year median; suppressed for small programs.