Energy & Mining Engineering
What you'll do in college
These majors prepare you to find, extract, and convert energy—oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and increasingly renewables. You'll take physics, chemistry, geology, thermodynamics, and specialized classes in well design, reservoir engineering, or mine planning.
Field trips and labs are common: you might log a real well, model a mine, or tour a drilling operation. Petroleum and mining programs spend significant time on geology and field operations.
What you'll do after college
Grads work at oil and gas companies, mining firms, electric utilities, and a growing number of clean-energy startups. The work can take you anywhere from offshore rigs to remote mines to research labs.
Pay is among the highest in engineering, but the industries are cyclical—booming one year and laying people off the next. The energy transition is reshaping the field as more grads work on geothermal and hydrogen.
Famous graduates
- Herbert Hoover — 31st U.S. President; B.A. in Geology and Mining from Stanford University
- George P. Mitchell — Pioneer of shale gas extraction; B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University
Selectivity vs. earnings
By acceptance rate
By SAT median
Majors in this category
| Major | Colleges | Degrees ▼ | Male/Female | Intl | 5yr Earn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy & Mining Engineering | 40 | 795 | 78% / 22% | 22% | $105,417 |
| Petroleum Engineering | 25 | 488 | 81% / 19% | 28% | $109,842 |
| Mining Engineering | 14 | 151 | 82% / 18% | 12% | $101,267 |
| Geological Engineering | 13 | 111 | 60% / 40% | 11% | $91,609 |
| Energy Systems Engineering | 5 | 43 | 77% / 23% | 14% | |
| Energy Science and Engineering | 1 | 2 | 50% / 50% | 0% |