Facts & Figures
Enrollment Fall 2022
8,264
Total students
5,729
Undergraduates
1,558
Master's
977
Doctoral
Undergraduate Students Fall 2022
Race/Ethnicity
White [60.6%] Asian [14.5%] Hispanic/Latino [12.6%] International [6.9%] African-American [2.4%] American Indian/Alaskan Native [1.4%] Unknown [0.9%] Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander [0.8%]
**Includes African-American, Hispanic/Latino, American-Indian/Alaska Native, Native-Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. See “About the Data” section for more information.
*Most recent National Average 6-year graduation rate in Engineering is 61.7% (Median) for all students and below 50% for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. (2018 American Society of Engineering Education Retention and Time-to-Graduation Survey)
Retention/Graduation Rate visualizations
Transfer Student Retention/Graduation Rate visualizations
Graduate Students Fall 2022
Race/Ethnicity
White [44.3%] International [37.9%] Asian [7.6%] Hispanic/Latino [6.2%] African-American [1.4%] Unknown [1.3%] American Indian/Alaskan Native [1.0%] Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander [0.4%]
Updated 10/2022.
*African-American, Hispanic/Latino, American-Indian/Alaska Native, Native-Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Post-Graduation Career Outcomes
$85,918
Undergraduate Alumni Median annual income 1-5 years post-graduation
Most Common Employers
Lockheed Martin • Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics • Seagate • Northrop Grumman • United Launch Alliance • Medtronic • NASA/JPL • Raytheon
Research
5
Center-scale initiatives funded in 2022
10
National Academy members
$159,805,717
Research awards for FY 2022
74%
Growth in research funding over last five years
Rankings
Undergraduate Public Rankings
U.S. News & World Report 2024 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs
#17 Best Undergraduate Engineering Program
#8 Aerospace Engineering
#8 Environmental Engineering
#14 Chemical Engineering
#15 Civil Engineering
#16 Computer Science
#20 Mechanical Engineering
Graduate Public Rankings
U.S. News & World Report 2023-24 Best Graduate Engineering Schools
#10 Best Graduate Engineering Schools
#5 Aerospace Engineering
#9 Environmental Engineering
#10 Chemical Engineering
#10 Civil Engineering
#16 Mechanical Engineering
#18 Computer Engineering
#18 Computer Science
#21 Electrical Engineering
#22 Biomedical Engineering
#25 Biological Engineering
#32 Materials Science and Engineering
The rankings, published annually by U.S. News and World Report, are based on a survey of more than 200 engineering schools nationwide that grant doctoral degrees. Specialty rankings are not available in all disciplines at the undergraduate level, and not all disciplines are ranked every year.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We have made strides in retention/graduation rates over the past ten years. A few highlights:
-
We continue to make progress toward gender parity with 40% female first-year cohort in fall 2022. Among 167 public engineering colleges in the US, CU Boulder was #10 for % of women undergraduates in engineering (ASEE 2021 Profiles data)
-
The number of graduate students in our College continues to increase (up 25% in the last 5 years) while still becoming increasingly diverse (10% URM students, 32% female)
-
The number of undergraduate students in our College historically underrepresented by race/ethnicity (URM) has more than doubled in the past 10 years (17% of our undergrad population)
College IDEA Plan Actions
We are continuously working toward greater equity, inclusion and diversity with undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, staff, faculty and administrators in alignment with the campus-wide Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan.
Faculty
250
Tenure track
faculty
105
Instructional
faculty
23:1
Undergraduate student
to faculty ratio
11:1
Graduate student
to faculty ratio
About the Data
Data Collection Values, Definitions and Limitations
In the College of Engineering and Applied Science, we strive to think critically about how to communicate data about our students, faculty and staff. We acknowledge that our collection methods are limited, and we may not have data to represent all identities within our diverse community. As often as possible, we will disaggregate our data to better understand the variation of experiences within our college and the university. To ensure that data is not identifiable, we will not share data on groups with fewer than 10 students where data could be attributed to a specific person. Statistically, methods for analyzing small populations are limited, but it is important to not disregard them. We utilize this data internally, although it may not be published.
As of Jan. 30, 2020, in alignment with Colorado driver license and identification card policies, CU Boulder systems include three sex designations: male (M), female (F) and nonbinary (X). CU Boulder recognizes that your legal information doesn't always align with how you identify. To foster diversity, equity and inclusion, CU systems allow you to indicate your gender identity, name pronunciation, preferred name, pronouns and/or sexual orientation within the Buff Portal. We are currently limited in the data that we can report because the information in the student portal may not be complete (data is self-reported and optional to report). For more information visit the Office of the Registrar. While the unique identities of our students, faculty and staff may not always be reflected in the data we have available, we seek to acknowledge and support all community members and to continue improve our data collection efforts.
Student demographic information initially comes from the Common Application that a student submits when they apply for admission. The Common Application includes Hispanic/Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White (including Middle Eastern) as race/ethnicity options. At this time the demographic information we are able to report on is limited to these categories.
While the unique identities of our students, faculty and staff may not always be reflected in the data we have available, we seek to acknowledge and support all community members and to continue improve our data collection efforts.
We strive to use terms that the people in our community self-identify with whenever possible. We acknowledge that the term “underrepresented minority” is not a term that students, faculty or staff generally use to identify themselves. We use this term to compare our data to national data on STEM education when disaggregated data by race/ethnicity is not available. Acronyms and terms can be convenient when describing data, but they are imperfect and problematic at times. We strive to use person-first language and to understand the unique experiences of individual students and groups. We are always open to feedback from our community as we continue to learn more and enhance the experience for all students, faculty and staff.
The Campus Workplace and Culture Survey will be distributed to all students, faculty and staff in fall 2021 and will provide an opportunity to collect updated demographic data that will hopefully reflect the unique identities within our community. The university is committed to creating a welcoming environment that values respect, civility, and collegiality. The purpose of the Campus and Workplace Culture Survey is to gather information from CU Boulder students, staff, and faculty about their academic, workplace, and residential environments. We will use the results from this survey to better understand the existing culture of a college/department/program and to identify both strengths and areas of concern in order to make recommendations for creating and sustaining a welcoming and inclusive culture at CU Boulder.
For questions contact Vanessa Dunn, Director of Analytics, Assessment and Accreditation.