Kettering University ranked first in the country in a Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education College Rankings survey asking students how well their colleges and universities prepare them for careers.

The survey asked students to rate how effective their colleges and universities have been in helping them secure internships that prepare them for careers. Kettering received an average rating of 9.74 out of 10 from survey respondents. 

“Along with being in our rigorous academic curricula, Kettering University students gain substantial, integrated, and deep professional experience from the moment they arrive on campus through our comprehensive co-operative education program,” said Kettering University President Dr. Robert K. McMahan. “They continue to gain that experience throughout their entire undergraduate education and when they graduate, they enter the workforce or graduate school as highly skilled and experienced engineers, scientists, managers and leaders. Our alumni are so strikingly successful because of the unique way they are prepared here to make an immediate impact in their fields.”

Kettering University was founded in 1919 on the belief that the best way to train engineers, scientists, businesspeople, leaders and innovators was to interlace the theory they learned in classrooms and labs with applied, professional experiences in their fields of study throughout their entire education. All Kettering students alternate between on-campus terms and co-op terms, either in paid positions with the University’s nearly 600 industry partners or in full-time, paid, research-based positions alongside faculty in labs. The opportunity for students to apply knowledge gained immediately to real-world problems in professional settings during the entire undergraduate experience differentiates Kettering from other universities.

“If we taught musicians the way we teach engineers, they would all get 12 years of music theory before ever touching an instrument,” McMahan told the Wall Street Journal. “The application of knowledge cannot be an afterthought.”

That model has resulted in graduates who are in demand. More than 98 percent of Kettering graduates are employed or accepted to graduate school within six months of graduation. Because they start out with more experience than graduates from other institutions, Kettering alumni typically earn higher starting salaries than their peers and have a higher lifetime earning potential. PayScale.com ranked Kettering first in the Midwest and 19th nationally for Return on Investment in 2017. Data shared by CNBC in September of 2017 ranked Kettering first in Michigan among colleges and universities for producing the highest earning graduates.

Additionally, Kettering University’s engineering program ranked 14th in the country in the 2018 U.S. News and World Report ‘Best Colleges’ edition. Kettering was designated a ‘Best in the Midwest’ university by the Princeton Review in its 2018 Best Colleges edition, the Washington Monthly ranked Kettering fifth in the Midwest in its ‘Best Bang for the Buck’ college rankings and Forbes designated Kettering as one of America’s Top Colleges in 2017.