Baylor Engineering School: Programs, Rankings, and Off-Campus Housing for STEM Students
Choosing Baylor engineering means committing to labs that run past midnight, senior design projects that eat up entire weekends, and a campus where proximity to your workspace is genuinely a quality-of-life variable. Before you sign anything — an acceptance letter or a lease — here's what you actually need to know about Baylor's School of Engineering and Computer Science and how your housing decision fits into the picture.
What Is the Baylor School of Engineering and Computer Science?
Baylor's School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS) is a dedicated academic unit within Baylor University that houses the engineering, computer science, cybersecurity, and bioinformatics programs. It's separate from the rest of Baylor's colleges, which means dedicated faculty, lab space, and career resources focused on STEM rather than diluted across disciplines.
The school recently hit its 30th anniversary, celebrated with events throughout the 2025–26 academic year. In that time it's expanded significantly — and the addition of an Aerospace Engineering degree in Fall 2025 signals that expansion isn't slowing down.
Engineering Programs at Baylor: Your Options
Baylor SECS offers more tracks than most prospective students realize when they start researching. Here's what's currently available:
Engineering disciplines:
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Aerospace Engineering (new Fall 2025)
- Civil Engineering
- General Engineering
Computing and tech disciplines:
- Computer Science
- Cybersecurity
- Bioinformatics
- Computer Engineering
Both undergraduate (BS) and graduate (MS/PhD) programs exist across several of these tracks. If you're looking at graduate school, Baylor runs graduate engineering programs through SECS with a student-to-faculty ratio in PhD programs of around 2.8:1 — closer to the intensive mentorship model you'd see in a smaller school than a large research university.
The newest addition, baylor aerospace engineering, is already drawing attention from students interested in aviation and autonomous systems. The school's AVIA Lab (Advanced Vehicle Intelligence and Autonomy Lab) is the research anchor for that program, working at the intersection of aerospace, ground transportation, and AI.
Baylor Engineering Rankings
Baylor University ranks #88 overall among national universities in the 2026 US News Best Colleges rankings. On the graduate engineering side, specific programs have been ranked individually — Materials Science and Engineering at #101, Mechanical Engineering at #128 nationally.
For baylor engineering ranking context: these numbers put Baylor in a competitive but accessible tier. It's not MIT or Georgia Tech, but it's a fully accredited, career-ready program that produces graduates who find work. Baylor's overall graduate placement rate hit 92% in 2024–25 — with a 94% "success rate" that includes employment in-field, any employment, and graduate school. That's measured with a 99% survey response rate, compared to the national average of around 60%.
The practical implication: Baylor engineering graduates aren't just getting degrees, they're getting jobs.
ABET Accreditation: What It Means for Your Career
The most important accreditation for engineering is ABET — the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Employers and graduate school admissions committees look for it. Baylor's core engineering programs are ABET-accredited:
- General Engineering (accredited since 1989)
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
Newer programs like Biomedical and Aerospace Engineering are built to meet ABET criteria and will become eligible for accreditation review after the first graduating class. If ABET accreditation in your specific discipline matters for your career path — particularly if you're pursuing a Professional Engineer (PE) license — confirm the accreditation status of your specific program directly with SECS before enrolling.
The Reality of Engineering Student Life at Baylor
Six hundred-plus students in SECS means smaller cohorts, labs you can actually get into, and faculty who learn your name. The 51 full-time faculty across the school creates an environment where office hours are productive rather than a queue management exercise.
What that doesn't mean: it's easy. Baylor university electrical engineering courses, lab-heavy semesters, and senior capstone design projects are demanding. Engineering students at Baylor routinely describe evenings in the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), late nights in the Clifton Robinson Tower labs, and weekend crunch sessions leading up to design reviews.
This is where your housing choice starts to matter more than students usually expect before they're deep in a semester.
Housing for Baylor Engineering Students
Baylor offers a STEM-focused residential community called the Teal Residential College in the East Village, designed for engineering, computer science, and nursing students. It's on-campus, convenient, and has built-in access to research connections — but it also comes with a two-year commitment for first-year students and the usual constraints of dorm life: shared bathrooms, limited cooking, and proximity to a building full of people when you need quiet to study.
Most engineering upperclassmen and graduate students move off-campus for the second and third year for a simple reason: you need your own space to do serious work. A private bedroom for late-night problem sets, a full kitchen for meal prep when lab days run 10 hours, in-unit laundry because you can't spare an hour at the laundromat mid-semester — these aren't luxuries when your schedule is as compressed as an engineering student's.
The other factor is commute. Engineering labs are scattered across the Baylor campus — Baylor Sciences Building, Clifton Robinson Tower, BRIC, and now facilities connected to the new Aerospace program. Students who live close enough to walk or bike eliminate the daily friction of driving to campus and finding parking. During late-night lab sessions, walking back at midnight in a gated community is simply safer.
Why Centre Works for Engineering Students
Centre Apartments sits at 1901 S 11th Street — walking distance to Baylor's main campus, and close enough to the south side of campus where many SECS facilities are located to make car-free days realistic. That matters in a way that's easy to underestimate until you're living it.
What Centre includes in every unit: high-speed internet, in-unit washer/dryer, and parking — the three line items that add up fast when they're charged separately. At complexes that itemize these, you're looking at an extra $120–200/month. For an engineering student watching every dollar during a semester that costs $67,000+ in tuition alone, that's a real number.
The two-bedroom and three-bedroom floor plans at Centre work especially well for engineering students who want to split rent with a lab partner or study group. Private bedrooms mean you can keep different schedules without the friction of shared sleep patterns. The townhouse option gives you the feel of a house with the lease simplicity of an apartment.
Centre is also gated, which matters when you're coming back from campus late. The amenities are focused on what you actually use — not a resort-style clubhouse that adds to your monthly fees.
For a deeper look at how off-campus costs stack up against on-campus options, the Baylor student budget guide breaks down the numbers. And if you're still deciding between programs, the complete Baylor majors guide covers the full picture across schools.
Plan Your Housing Before Classes Start
Engineering students who wait until March or April to look for off-campus housing often find that the best units near campus are already gone. The pattern at Baylor is to sign leases for the following fall in early spring — sometimes as early as January.
If you're incoming for the 2027 school year, starting to research now is not premature. If you're already a Baylor engineering student and your current housing isn't working, it's worth knowing what's available.
Schedule a tour at Centre to see the floor plans in person, ask about availability, and get a clear picture of what your monthly costs would look like — including every fee. The application is straightforward, and there's no pressure to decide on the spot.
Baylor engineering is one of the more demanding programs in the region. Your housing shouldn't add to the friction.
