When making the important decision to invest in a graduate degree in engineering, it is crucial you understand the benefits and advantages that come with that investment. By pursuing a professional graduate degree in the field of engineering, you will position yourself for a multitude of lucrative and successful careers in engineering.
At Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (VUSE), we know that you have a variety of options when it comes to choosing where you will obtain your graduate degree in engineering. With this in mind, we have outlined some of the valuable reasons you should consider earning your engineering master's degree from the renowned Vanderbilt engineering community.
1. Vanderbilt University School of Engineering is fueled by compassion and excellence.
Vanderbilt University School of Engineering is No. 42 in annual rankings by U.S. News.
The mission of Vanderbilt University School of Engineering is to:
- Produce intellectual leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators by recruiting the best students and providing them with a top-notch education.
- Deliver scholarship of the highest caliber, published in the most visible venues, addressing important societal problems.
- Be a leader in entrepreneurship and innovation, in Tennessee, the U.S. and globally.
We demonstrate the value of our educational mission by developing and delivering high-quality curricula in multiple types of engineering disciplines, by ensuring accreditation of our programs, by providing opportunities that engage our students beyond the classroom, by connecting with our students through mentoring and by building lifelong engagement with our alumni.
2. Vanderbilt University produces innovative professionals who go on to pursue lucrative careers in engineering.
At Vanderbilt University, we produce principled and ethical alumni whose career trajectories leverage their Vanderbilt experience to offer opportunities for professional growth and impact. Graduates of the School of Engineering enter their respective industries with the skills and knowledge needed to impact progress and challenge conventional thinking.
Armed with a respected degree in engineering, graduates of the Vanderbilt engineering community have begun new engineering careers in organizations.
Here are just a few of our noteworthy graduates:
Sree Lakshmi Buravalli, master of engineering in civil engineering with a concentration on construction management; Senior Project Controls Specialist at Burns & McDonnell
Paul Kevin Shrem, master of engineering in civil engineering with a concentration on construction management; Director of the Engineering-Architecture Division at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Ron Picard, master of engineering in cyber-physical systems; Experimentation Lead at United States Air Force
Celia Maiorano, master of engineering in surgery and intervention; Mobile Body Brain Imaging Data Analyst at the Child Mind Institute
You can read about other graduates of the School of Engineering here.
3. Vanderbilt engineering teaching professionals are respected experts with experience in various fields of engineering.
The professionals who teach our graduate engineering students and guide our research include world leaders in their respective fields. They are esteemed innovators who have on-the-ground experience and the industry knowledge needed to prepare future leaders to enter the field of engineering with competitive skill sets.
Allow us to showcase a few of the Vanderbilt engineering faculty:
- Sanjiv Gokhale, Ph.D., Director of Graduate Studies in Construction Management
- Research Focus: Repair, rehabilitation and renewal of underground infrastructure; infrastructure management; cost and schedule control for large-cap EPC projects
- Research Focus: Repair, rehabilitation and renewal of underground infrastructure; infrastructure management; cost and schedule control for large-cap EPC projects
- Michael Miga, Ph.D., Interim Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Research Focus: Image-guided surgery and intervention, computational modeling for therapeutic applications, soft-tissue mechanics, biotransport, and inverse problems in therapeutics and imaging.
- Research Focus: Image-guided surgery and intervention, computational modeling for therapeutic applications, soft-tissue mechanics, biotransport, and inverse problems in therapeutics and imaging.
- Xenofon Koutsoukos, Ph.D., Chair of Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Research Focus: Hybrid and embedded systems, cyber-physical systems and sensor networks
- Christopher Rowe, Ed.D., Executive Director for Industry Collaborations, Office of the Vice Provost for Research
- Research Focus: Engineering education, program/project management, leadership, ethics and strategy
4. All Vanderbilt engineering students participate in paid engineering internships.
Did you know that all graduate students secure a paid engineering internship prior to graduation?
By securing an internship while pursuing a graduate engineering degree, future leaders in the field have the opportunity to apply the knowledge they are learning in the classroom to a real-life professional setting. Fostering an experiential learning environment, in turn, makes graduate engineering students competitive and marketable upon graduation.
5. Vanderbilt research in engineering is a focal point of our community.
Vanderbilt’s engineering community impacts the Nashville community, the state of Tennessee, the United States and the global community through our world-class research in engineering enterprise.
Research opportunities within the School of Engineering allow students to pursue in-depth study of real-world, tangible topics that range from asset management to underground infrastructure evaluation.
We focus on grand engineering challenges that leverage our multidisciplinary and collaborative culture, and we demonstrate the value of impactful research through our investment in collaborative centers, institutes and facilities. Such investment creates a portfolio of contributions spanning the range from the discoveries of basic research to the solutions of applied research.
You can explore our strategic research areas here.
6. Vanderbilt University School of Engineering fosters a tight-knit community with small class sizes.
As a member of the Vanderbilt engineering community, you can expect to enjoy the richness of collaboration and long-term relationships built within a multidisciplinary research university, but paired with the intimacy and student-to-faculty ratio of a small private college.
In fact, the graduate student-to-faculty ratio is 5:1.
By fostering a tight-knit community, we ensure that each and every student receives the attention and assistance he or she needs in order to graduate with the skills needed to jumpstart a successful and lucrative career.
7. At Vanderbilt University, we celebrate diversity in the field of engineering.
Our people are committed to perpetuating a diverse and inclusive culture that showcases respect, collegiality and intellectual freedom.
We recognize that diversity is a driver for innovative and creative solutions that benefit our society through engineering, and we demonstrate the value of diversity and inclusion through our educational practice, our workplace culture, our hiring processes and our engagement with the wider community.
8. The School of Engineering offers options for financing graduate school.
At Vanderbilt University, we understand to finance graduate school, financial planning is a must.
Explore information from the Office of Financial Aid to learn more about the financial aid options and graduate fellowships available to you.
9. VUSE provides ongoing professional learning initiatives and workforce training programs.
In response to the market demand for an increasingly specialized workforce, VUSE has launched initiatives in developing customized online learning materials for further education (non-credit bearing and non-degree granting) and employee training programs across engineering fields.
The goal of helping VUSE’s industry partners recruit, foster, retain and further develop talents for the workforce led to the design and creation of an experiential education program with a customizable curriculum, flexible format and technological integration.
VUSE has the unique and rich expertise in specialized areas such as radiation effects on electronics in space, cyber-physical systems, computer science as well as risk and resilience, engineering management and leadership.
10. Vanderbilt University's hometown is a vibrant city: Nashville, Tennessee.
Vanderbilt University’s hometown of Nashville, Tennessee is an exciting city that is proudly known as “Music City, U.S.A.” Located a little more than a mile from downtown, the university’s students, faculty, staff and visitors frequently cite Nashville as one of the perks of attending Vanderbilt.
From serving as home to the nation’s largest Kurdish population to being named America’s friendliest city for three years in a row, Nashville is a metropolitan area that proudly exudes all of the charm and hospitality expected from a Southern capital.
To learn more, explore Our Hometown: Nashville page.
Nurture your spirit of innovation at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering.
Vanderbilt University's internationally-recognized School of Engineering prepares students to become leaders in addressing and solving challenges that the engineering field is facing today. Our graduates are the future experts, innovators, researchers, educators and professionals who will contribute to global and societal progress.
You have the opportunity to reward your ambition and join a community of driven changemakers at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering.
If you’re ready to nurture your spirit of innovation and achieve academic excellence, we invite you to request more information or start your online application today.
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