<p>You'll see people on these boards quote USNWR specialty rankings as if they were scribed by God himself. If I recall correctly (I might be wrong), it's a simple survey sent to a few Deans and recruiters. That's hardly an adequate way of making a rankings list. You are right in that it's only good for naming the top 10-20 schools, not necessarily ranking them. I'm not in a position to rank the schools on a program I'm unfamiliar with, but if you are uncertain about which major to pursue then I maintain that you choose a good overall engineering school. That's what I did when choosing my college instead of opting for a school that was strong in one particular area but weak in the rest.</p>
<p>Here is the Ugrad handbook guide for Mech and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. When majoring in MechE (and most other engineering majors at cornell), you usually have to concentrate in a specific subfield. For MAE, Aerospace Engineering is one of them.</p>
<p>Here's the link and the required courses for the concentration:
<a href="http://www.mae.cornell.edu/handbook/04default.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.mae.cornell.edu/handbook/04default.html</a></p>
<p>I have no idea how this undergraduate concentration compares to Aerospace engineering at other schools. I recommend talking to professors in the departments at Cornell and other schools - they will have good answers to your questions. Usually you can email/phone the head/chair of the departments.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to pimp my school here, but what I'm trying to say is if you are seriously considering Cornell then make sure you research it properly to see if it meets your needs. Almost every school have websites like this with tons of information for prospective undergrads, so spend time snooping around and make an informed decision. Hope this helps and good luck.</p>