Environmental Health Engineering Degree

47 schools compared · Average earnings $63,650/yr

Students study how engineering principles solve environmental problems including water and air pollution, waste management, contaminated site remediation, and sustainable infrastructure design. Graduates typically pursue careers at environmental consulting firms, the EPA, water treatment facilities, and sustainability departments of major corporations. Growing environmental regulations and climate concerns drive steady demand and competitive salaries for environmental engineers.

What Environmental Health Engineering Graduates Do

Your degree puts you on the front lines of public and environmental health. Early in your career as an environmental engineer, you’ll spend your days at a contaminated site collecting soil samples, then head back to the office to model how pollutants are spreading and design a remediation system. Or, as a health and safety engineer, you might be on a manufacturing floor, redesigning equipment to reduce worker injuries and ensuring compliance with government standards.

With experience, you’ll move from executing tasks to leading them. After years of managing complex cleanup projects, you could become an engineering manager, responsible for multi-million dollar budgets and entire teams of junior engineers. For those with a passion for mentorship, the path to becoming a postsecondary engineering teacher is growing particularly fast, allowing you to train the next generation.

AI will significantly change how this work gets done. Expect software to automate routine tasks like initial data analysis from field samples and drafting standard compliance reports. Your job won't disappear, but it will evolve. Your value will shift toward validating AI-generated models, solving unique field problems that software can't handle, and making critical judgment calls on complex environmental challenges.

Schools Offering
47
Avg Grad Earnings
$63,650/yr
Avg DegreeOutlook Score
58/100
AI Automation Risk
Very High
55% task exposure

Common Career Paths

Where Environmental Health Engineering graduates typically work, ranked by salary. Salary ranges show 25th–75th percentile spread. This field has roughly 23,100 combined openings per year.

Career Path Salary Range Openings/yr Growth AI Risk
Architectural and engineering managers
$167,740
$135K$207K
14,500 +3.8% 41%
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors
$109,660
$85K$136K
1,500 +4.4% 54%
Engineering teachers, postsecondary
$106,120
$80K$136K
4,100 +8.1% 50%
Environmental engineers
$104,170
$81K$131K
3,000 +3.9% 56%
Architectural and engineering managers
$167,740
$135K $207K
14,500 openings/yr +3.8% growth 41% AI risk
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors
$109,660
$85K $136K
1,500 openings/yr +4.4% growth 54% AI risk
Engineering teachers, postsecondary
$106,120
$80K $136K
4,100 openings/yr +8.1% growth 50% AI risk
Environmental engineers
$104,170
$81K $131K
3,000 openings/yr +3.9% growth 56% AI risk

Source: BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics, May 2024. Salary range shows 25th–median–75th percentile (national).

Best Schools for Environmental Health Engineering

Top 20 of 47 schools ranked by DegreeOutlook Score. Click any row for full AI scenario analysis and earnings projections.

# School DW Score Earnings ROI
1 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA
71
67–72
$82,197/yr 18.5x
2 CUNY City College
New York, NY
69
66–70
$62,945/yr 26.8x
3 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
Atlanta, GA
68
66–69
$70,008/yr 17.5x
4 University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Platteville, WI
68
65–69
$69,490/yr 21.5x
5 University of Florida
Gainesville, FL
68
65–69
$62,480/yr 28.1x
6 Florida Gulf Coast University
Fort Myers, FL
68
66–69
$60,797/yr 31.4x
7 California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt
Arcata, CA
67
65–68
$55,589/yr 24.6x
8 Oregon State University-Cascades Campus
Bend, OR
66
64–67
$68,223/yr 15.1x
9 Ohio State University-Main Campus
Columbus, OH
66
64–67
$67,938/yr 15.3x
10 Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR
65
63–66
$68,223/yr 14.0x
11 Colorado State University-Fort Collins
Fort Collins, CO
64
62–65
$66,109/yr 14.1x
12 Clemson University
Clemson, SC
63
60–64
$68,363/yr 11.6x
13 University of Delaware
Newark, DE
63
61–64
$65,634/yr 11.8x
14 University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, CO
63
61–64
$63,049/yr 11.9x
15 University of California-Riverside
Riverside, CA
63
61–64
$59,309/yr 13.5x
16 University at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY
63
61–65
$57,098/yr 16.3x
17 Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ
62
59–63
$62,936/yr 12.9x
18 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI
62
60–63
$57,824/yr 11.9x
19 Colorado School of Mines
Golden, CO
61
58–62
$69,102/yr 8.9x
20 Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO
61
59–62
$57,679/yr 12.4x

Highest Earning Environmental Health Engineering Programs

Schools where Environmental Health Engineering graduates earn the most in their first year after graduation.

Best ROI for Environmental Health Engineering

Schools with the highest earnings-to-tuition ratio for Environmental Health Engineering.

School ROI Multiple Earnings DW Score
Florida Gulf Coast University 31.4x $60,797/yr 68
University of Florida 28.1x $62,480/yr 68
CUNY City College 26.8x $62,945/yr 69
Kennesaw State University 25.7x $61,701/yr 58
California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt 24.6x $55,589/yr 67
Florida International University 23.6x $64,541/yr 59
University of Wisconsin-Platteville 21.5x $69,490/yr 68
University of Central Florida 21.2x $56,443/yr 56
San Diego State University 19.0x $66,482/yr 58
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo 18.5x $82,197/yr 71
Want to compare two Environmental Health Engineering programs side by side? Use the comparison tool →

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much do Environmental Health Engineering graduates earn?
Across 47 schools, Environmental Health Engineering graduates earn an average of $63,650 per year in their first year after graduation. Earnings range from $47,028 to $82,197 depending on the school.
What is the AI automation risk for Environmental Health Engineering?
Environmental Health Engineering is rated "Very High" for AI automation risk, with an average of 55% of job tasks exposed to large language models and AI tools. This means most career tasks in this field could be augmented or replaced by AI over the next decade.
Which school has the best Environmental Health Engineering program?
Based on our DegreeOutlook Score (combining earnings, AI resilience, job market size, and ROI), California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo ranks #1 for Environmental Health Engineering with a score of 71/100 and graduate earnings of $82,197/yr.
What's the outlook for a Environmental Health Engineering degree?
On average, Environmental Health Engineering graduates earn 13.5x their in-state tuition over 10 years. This is a strong return on investment.
Scores use College Scorecard earnings, BLS employment projections, and AI task-exposure research. See full methodology →