斯坦福是全世界知名的理工名校，近年来商学院也声名鹊起，但为学生向往的依然是斯坦福知名世界的工学院，而机械工程专业也一直在全世界排名前列。
一般而言，工学院本科生就业起薪不高，并且绝大多数学生要到硕士毕业以后才就业。但斯坦福本科生的毕业起薪也已达到了平均74，000美金，并且愿意工作的学生达到了百分之百就业。
从事的工作职位包括：工业开发与研究顾问，硬件工程师，政府科研技师，,机械工程师，制造工程师。包括洛克希德马丁公司、波音公司、波士顿咨询集团、智慧医疗、美国国立卫生研究院等都是斯坦福学生的职业选择。
同时，更多的学生选择进入研究生以上的研究学习。
相对而言，学生只有读到硕士阶段，才能真正成为一名专业的机械工程技能技师。
他们将会具备更深的职业深度和以本专业为事业的基本条件。
申请机械工程要有很好的工程背景，非常优秀的数学和物理学的成绩，良好的实际动手能力，即实验仪器的操作，常用计算机软件的熟练使用。
在申请本校的时候，依然有很大的优势。徜徉于校园中也会经常遇到黄皮肤的中国学生。
本校专业的分类也解决了大多数学生对选择硕士专业的困惑，斯坦福包括近80名知名教授的机械学院，专业分为5大研究方向：
1，Biomechanical Engineering (BME) Program 生物机械工程
The Biomechanical Engineering (BME) Program has teaching and research activities which focus
primarily on musculoskeletal biomechanics, neuromuscular biomechanics, cardiovascular biomechanics, and rehabilitation engineering. Research in other areas including hearing, ocean, plant, and vision biomechanics exist in collaboration with associated faculty in biology, engineering, and medicine. The Biomechanical Engineering Program has particularly strong research interactions with the Mechanics and Computation and the Design groups, and the departments of Functional Restoration, Neurology, Radiology, and Surgery in the School of Medicine.
生物机械工程学首要的是研究肌肉骨骼，神经肌肉，心血管工程方向以及相关复原工程。在其他领域包括听力，海洋，视力等生物力学存在于与生物，工程，以及医学等。生物机械工程学与流体物理学和计算工程有很强的相关性。同时与包括骨骼恢复，神经病学，放射学，外科医学等相关。
2，Design Group总成设计 The Design Group emphasizes cognitive skill development for creative design. It is concerned with automatic control, computer-aided design, creativity, design aesthetics, design for manufacturability, design research, experimental stress analysis, fatigue and fracture mechanics, finite element analysis, human factors, kinematics, manufacturing systems, microcomputers in design, micro-electromechanics systems (MEMS), robotics, and vehicle dynamics. The Design Group offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Product Design (jointly with the Department of Art and Art History) and is centrally involved in the founding of Stanford's new Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
总成设计注重于创造性设计。侧重于自动控制，计算机辅助设计，创造性，设计美学，可造性设计，试验压力分析，设计研究，机械磨损以及损耗，有限的元素分析，人为因素，产业体系，微电子系统，机器人，车辆动力学等。总成设计部为本科生和研究生提供产品设计（与艺术设计学院是联合项目）项目，并且属于斯坦福普拉特纳设计学院的核心开发项目。
3，流体物理学和计算工程（FPCE）
The Flow Physics and Computational Engineering Group (FPCE) is developing new theories, models, and computational tools for accurate engineering design analysis and control of complex flows (including acoustics, chemical reactions, interactions with electromagnetic waves, plasmas, and other phenomena) of interest in aerodynamics, electronics cooling, environment engineering, materials processing, planetary entry, propulsion and power systems, and other areas. A significant emphasis of FPCE research is on modeling and analysis of physical phenomena in engineering systems. FPCE students and research staff are developing new methods and tools for generation, access, display, interpretation and post-processing of large databases resulting from numerical simulations of physical systems. Research in FPCE ranges from advanced simulation of complex turbulent flows to active flow control. The FPCE faculty teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in acoustics, aerodynamics, computational fluid mechanics, computational mathematics, fluid mechanics, combustion, and thermodynamics and propulsion.
流体物理学和计算工程用于发展新理论，模型，计算机化的工具来做复杂的空气动力学，电子冷却，环境工程，材料加工等的的精确设计，，电子加速器，推进与能量系统和其他领域。一个明显的有关（FPCE）研究的是建模与分析工程系统中的物理现象。（FPCE）的学生以及科研人员开发出新的方法和工具用来计算生成，进入，展示，混成，后期处理等统计于物理系统的数值模型的数据库。（FPCE）的研究延伸至对仿真的紊流进行控制。FPCE的老师教授研究生和本科生声学，空气动力学，计算流体力学，计算数学，流体力学，燃烧学，热力学和动力学等。
4，Mechanics and Computation Group 机械与计算机工程
The Mechanics and Computational Group covers biomechanics, continuum mechanics, dynamics, experimental and computational mechanics, finite element analysis, fluid dynamics, fracture mechanics, micromechanics, nanotechnology, and simulation based design. Qualified students can work as research project assistants, engaging in thesis research in working association with the faculty director and fellow students. Projects include analysis, synthesis, and control of systems; biomechanics; flow dynamics of liquids and gases; fracture and micro-mechanics, vibrations, and nonlinear dynamics; and original theoretical, computational, and experimental investigations in the strength and deformability of elastic and inelastic elements of machines and structures.
力学与计算主要包括生物力学，连续介质力学，动力学，实验计算力学，有限元方法，流体力学，断裂力学，微米力学，纳米技术，仿真模拟设计，有能力的学生可以作为研究助手，和教授同学一起做理论研究，
这些项目包括分析，合成，系统控制，生物力学，气体液体的流体力学，断裂和微观力学，振动理论，非线性系统，original theoretical，计算力学，力学方面的的弹性非弹性材料的强度和变形
5，Thermosciences Group 热动力学
The Thermosciences Group conducts experimental and analytical research on both fundamental and applied topics in the general area of thermal and fluid systems. Research strengths include high Reynolds number flows, microfluidics, combustion and reacting flows, multiphase flow and combustion, plasma sciences, gas physics and chemistry, laser diagnostics, microscale heat transfer, convective heat transfer, and energy systems. Research motivation comes from applications including air-breathing and space propulsion, bioanalytical systems, pollution control, electronics fabrication and cooling, stationary and mobile energy systems, biomedical systems, and materials processing. There is a strong emphasis on fundamental experiments leading towards advances in modeling, optimization, and control of complex systems.
热学主要是在基础理论和应用上进行实验分析，主要领域是热力学和流体系统，研究主要的力学主要有高雷诺数流动，微流动，有燃烧和化学反应的流动，多界面流动和燃烧，等离子体科学，气体物理化学，激光诊断，微观热能转换，热转换，和能量系统。研究的兴趣包括太空呼吸和空间飞行器推进，生物分析系统，污染控制，电子制造和冷却，静动态能量系统，生物医学系统，材料加工，我们更加注重可以促进建模，优化，复杂系统控制的基础实验。
