<p>How come does this school take the 5th place in "US best engineering schools ranking"? I mean, I don't understand how these things work. For instance, if I both get accepted to Columbia Fu school of engineering and to illinois, which one should I choose? What makes U of illinois - urbana champaign so special?</p>
<p>US News engineering rankings are peer based -- deans and senior faculty nationwide basically vote on what they believe are the best or most prestigious programs and rank is likely influenced by known faculty and research they have done or are doing. Moreover, the ranking of the college's graduate school, where all that research is mostly being conducted, likely impacts on the ranking of the undergraduate college. Will you learn more or be better taught at Illinois? No rankings measure such things and likely large numbers of colleges ranked much lower than Columbia are just as good at those things as Illinois or Columbia.</p>
<p>The real issue is whether you will decide your fate based on rankings, which many a high school student cannot resist despite a near universal consensus that it is an unwise way to make a decision, or more practical considerations such as cost, distance, location, other known prestige (Columbia is an ivy), and just where you would rather be.</p>
<p>Just look at both programs, maybe take a visit, and choose which place you like better. You can't go wrong with either one to be honest. Illinois gets the better reputation in those ranking because of what drusba just said, plus those rankings take into account research expenditure, and UIUC does a lot of spending on research. The downside is it is a big school, so you have to try a little harder to stand out and get undergraduate research positions or anything like that.</p>