SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech has been recognized as a top ranked institution offering the best online master's in Mechanical Engineering degree programs by Intelligent.com. New Mexico Tech was listed among 35 other competing public institutions across the nation. 

The student-focused comprehensive research guide is based on an assessment of 1,604 accredited colleges and universities. Each program is evaluated based on curriculum quality, graduation rate, reputation, and post-graduate employment. 

The biggest challenge was to adapt the instruction to the online format,” department chair Dr. Andrei Zagrai said. “We have had dedicated faculty who were willing to adapt and consider different ways of communicating with students. And we could not have achieved that level of online instruction without the help of the Distance Education people. Iver Davidson and Rob Hepler have contributed heavily to the success of the online program. They’ve been very dedicated to make the software compatible and help the faculty to teach using the software.”

The Mechanical Engineering Department master’s program has only been available for about 12 years. In that short time frame, Zagrai said the online master’s was one of the first ever to be accredited by the HLC and ABET. The department has also gone from using no content delivery system, to adopting and abandoning two different systems. With the assistance of Davidson and Hepler, the department is using the Canvas system for online course delivery and interaction.

The 2020 rankings are calculated through a unique scoring system which includes student engagement, potential return on investment, and leading third party evaluations. Intelligent.com analyzed 144 programs, on a scale of 0 to 100, with only 35 institutions making it to the final list. Ranked at #10, New Mexico Tech scored a 90.44 on the website’s scale.

Zagrai pointed out that Intelligent.com’s methodology for ranking also includes several institutional standards, such as cost-per-credit-hour and overall return-on-investment. He said without the support of the administration to keep tuition low, NMT would not rank so well in this sort of national survey.

Kennesaw State in Georgia was the No. 1 ranked program, with a score of 99.77. Some of the other schools in the top 10 include Central Florida, Houston, Old Dominion, Florida, Kansas State, and Iowa State.

The website’s methodology uses an algorithm which collects and analyzes multiple rankings into one score to easily compare each university’s degree program. To access the complete ranking, please visit:

https://www.intelligent.com/best-online-masters-in-mechanical-engineering-degree-programs/.

This is the second national accolade for the department this year. Just two months ago, the website OnlineSchoolReport.com ranked New Mexico Tech as the No. 23 program in the nation for online master’s in mechanical engineering.

– NMT –