<ol>
<li>What are some LACs that offer good engineering programs? </li>
<li>Is it better to attend a large university if one wants to major in engineering? </li>
<li>Is engineering in Ivies relatively week?</li>
</ol>
<p>There are much better informed people in this forum than I but my thoughts:</p>
<ol>
<li>Swarthmore is the only one i know off the top of my head</li>
<li>Yes because there are more profs, labs, money, fancy equipment</li>
<li>yes except for cornell. Better schools: Stanford, UIUC, GATech, Caltech, MIT</li>
</ol>
<p>How’s the vibe in Cornell? Are engineering students more ‘focused’?
Also, how’s Cornell’s FA for international students?</p>
<p>No idea for any of them :D</p>
<p>1) Don’t really know, as I didn’t really look for any when I was looking for schools. I always wanted that big research school kind of feel, plus UIUC was my in-state school so why pass it up?</p>
<p>2) Being a large university doesn’t really matter, though many of the best engineering schools are large universities. The best engineering programs fall into one of two categories; (i) They are major research institutions with top faculty doing cutting edge research and offering some degree of opportunity for undergraduate research, or (ii) they are smaller schools with less research but a great reputation for the way they teach their engineers and somewhat more approachable faculty. There are more of the first type than the second, as it is very hard for a school to do a good job in engineering without the associated research programs (whether that is just a correlation or actual causation is up for debate). Which is better really comes down to personal preference.</p>
<p>3) Cornell is the only Ivy that I would consider to be excellent in engineering. Princeton is a semi-distant second.</p>
<hr>
<p>While I did not attend Cornell, I have several colleagues here in grad school who were Cornell engineers, and they seem to be essentially the same type of people that I was used to being around at UIUC. They don’t seem any more focused than I am, for example. Any major engineering program is going to have students that are more focused than their peers majoring in marketing or something relatively easy like that.</p>
<ol>
<li> Harvey Mudd</li>
<li> Not necessarily</li>
</ol>
<p>Harvey Mudd is sort of LAC-like. I mean, it is classified as one but it really is a technical institution… as much as Caltech or MIT is. 99-100% of the students major in math/science/engineering.</p>
<p>I went to Mudd and received a superb engineering education that has paid off. This isn’t a technician school but rather a real hardcore science and engineering program intended for serious students. It would be a good school to consider if you have the stomach for a place like Caltech or MIT.</p>
<p>Anyways, there are several great programs out there and depending upon what you wish to do some are better than others.</p>
<p>Ivy League Undergraduate Engineering Programs - Rankings among all universities with PHD programs</p>
<p><a href=“Login - www.usna.com”>US Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation - www.usna.com;
<p>**9. Cornell University (NY) 4.2
12. Princeton University (NJ) 4.0 **</p>
<ol>
<li> Columbia University (NY) 3.5 </li>
<li> Harvard University (MA) 3.5 </li>
<li> University of Pennsylvania 3.5 </li>
<li> Brown University (RI) 3.3 </li>
<li> Yale University (CT) 3.2 </li>
<li> Dartmouth College (NH) 3.0</li>
</ol>
<p>Regarding Princeton University</p>
<p>last time I looked, having the 12th ranked department in the country would not be considered to be a “weak” department…</p>
<p>1) I said Princeton was second best after Cornell.
2) That is the only time I have seen them ranked anywhere near that high.
3) Rankings aren’t even close to being the end-all factor for program quality.
4) I stand by my opinion with the addendum that Princeton is a wonderful engineering school if you want a non-traditional job after graduation like investment banking or some of those other uber-lucrative Wall Street jobs. For technical positions, Cornell is better, as are many other schools. It is not the #12 technical engineering program.</p>
<p>That list is based solely on surveys. Of course the bigger name schools did better.</p>
<p>bone, but that is not what you said, was it?</p>
<p>this is what you said:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>since when is ranked #12 in country not considered to be excellent in engineering?</p>
<p>since when is ranked #12 in country versus #9 considered to be a semi-distant second?</p>
<p>Ever since we don’t put all of our faith in rankings.</p>
<p>Exactly. I said Cornell is excellent. Semi-distant second doesn’t mean terrible, it just means “not excellent” and not really that close to being excellent.</p>
<p>Additionally, I don’t really care too much about rankings. They usually put a school in the correct rough area of where they should rank, but I base my opinion much more on what sort of research they put out and what quality of engineers they produce. Princeton is not really close to Cornell in that respect in my experience, as well as the experience (it seems) of most of the other people on this board.</p>
<p>Princeton is great if you want to do non-engineering stuff with an engineering degree, and sure, you can do the more traditional technical stuff, too, but there are still many schools that are better when it comes to the technical side of things. If you removed the effect of investment banking and other similar careers from the equation, I bet Princeton’s rank would fall significantly (my guess would be in the low to mid 20’s range).</p>
<p>Why do ivies get put on some huge pedestal?</p>
<p>'Cause in this country football is SERIOUS BUSINESS.</p>
<p>bone, why in the world would you even say this?</p>
<p>are you saying that Engineering peers that rank the top engineering colleges ranked Princeton at #12 because of the success of its engineers in Investment Banking and not in the Engineering Graduate Schools and Engineering jobs at corporations?</p>
<p>do you know how silly you sound here?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The US News rankings are based on a lot more than just peer ranking. There are like a dozen different metrics they use.</p>
<p>Number of National Academy of Engineering Members*</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/Members+By+Parent+InstitutionA?openview[/url]”>http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/Members+By+Parent+InstitutionA?openview</a></p>
<ol>
<li> Massachusetts Inst. of Technology - 114</li>
<li> Stanford University (CA) - 92</li>
<li> University of California–Berkeley - 77</li>
<li> University of Texas–Austin - 48</li>
<li> California Institute of Technology - 31</li>
<li> U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign - 29</li>
<li> Georgia Institute of Technology - 26
8. Princeton University (NJ) - 25</li>
<li> Cornell University (NY) - 25</li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon University ¶ - 25</li>
<li> University of Michigan–Ann Arbor - 22</li>
<li> Northwestern University (IL) - 20</li>
<li> Univ. of California–San Diego - 20</li>
<li> Univ. of California–Los Angeles - 19</li>
<li> Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison - 19</li>
<li> Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN) - 18</li>
<li> Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities - 16</li>
<li> Texas A&M Univ.–College Station - 14</li>
<li> Rice University (TX) - 12</li>
<li> Virginia Tech - 11</li>
<li> Pennsylvania State U.–Univ. Park - 9</li>
<li> Johns Hopkins University (MD) - 8</li>
</ol>
<p>*schools from the top 20 USNWR Undergraduate Engineering Rankings for school with PHD programs</p>
<p>bone, oh…ok</p>
<p>why don’t you tell us about the metrics used</p>
<p>particular those that stated that becoming an Investment Banker helps increase the engineering rankings</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>
</p>