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<p>I guess reasonable minds can differ, but looking at the rankings of engineering programs posted by rjkofnovi (which are simply peer assessments), Rice and Duke are basically seen as equals by academia (#19 vs. #22). 0.1 difference when we don’t even no how the rounding was done?</p>
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<p>They offer basically the same disciplines - it’s just organized differently. Brown doesn’t have individual engineering departments; they have a single Division of Engineering with the following available concentrations that are ABET accredited:</p>
<p>Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Materials Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Computer Engineering</p>
<p>Duke has four engineering departments: Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. So, while 7 sounds greater than 4 departments, you’ll see that three out of these four departments have two disciplines. One can easily cater his/her curriculum and research to the specific discipline. So, basically, the only thing Brown offers that Duke doesn’t is chemical/biochem engineering (and one could easily suggest that some of the BME faculty at Duke have research under the chemE realm). And one could argue that Duke offers Environmental Engineering, while Brown doesn’t…Not much of a difference between the two in available offerings in my mind.</p>
<p>On another note, would you suggest somebody would be insane to choose Harvard over Illinois for engineering? Harvard is seen as “pathetic” relatively while Illinois is always top 10. How could smart people possibly ever choose to enroll in Harvard’s sub-standard engineering program?! There sure are a lot of them…Obviously, there is something else attractive about the program. Ample research opportunities, top notch faculty and students, facilities, small classes and individual attention, future networking and job opportunities, and other course offerings outside the engineering school are all viable rationales. </p>
<p>The rankings are basically by research output and historical precedence - if a school has 16 departments and 500 faculty members, it’s likely going to be well-known on the engineering map. All those people better be doing something positive. Obviously, that is a good thing and IL is a very respected engineering program. But that doesn’t mean somebody is going to clearly be better off by choosing Illinois engineering over Harvard engineering. I’d argue that Harvard has several advantages, and I’m sure that Harvard engineering students have more impressive stats out of high school than Illinois engineering students. A large percentage of individuals who go into engineering don’t even end up as an engineer - about 30% don’t even end up as an engineering graduate. Another large chunk goes into business, finance, consulting, and other industries. This would be another huge advantage Harvard has over Illinois.</p>
<p>Now, in this case, all four of these institutions are great overall, so I could see choosing any of them. I would just argue that there are certainly reasonable people who choose Duke or UPenn or Harvard engineering over the likes of Cornell or Rice. Duke’s engineering student body has a middle range of 33-35 on the ACT - obviously, they’re attracting top notch students for some reason or another. Students who likely could have chosen schools like IL, UMich, GaTech which are seen as clearly superior by some on this site. I chose Duke engineering over UMich and Illinois, by the way. I still view UMich and Illinois very highly but saw Duke as a better fit. UPenn was my second choice (another “terrible” engineering institution), while UMich was my third. Obviously, it’s personal preference though.</p>
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I’m basically in agreement with what you’re saying generally…I perhaps came off a bit harsh in the last post. But all are great choices.</p>
I remember Cornell has the best applied physics engineering?</p>