<p>Okay, Everyone here I'm sure knows about Case's Engineering department's reputation being one of the best in the country, but any time I see rankings, it ends up around #40 except in biomedical. What's with the discrepancy in word-of-mouth versus rankings? What are they based on? Is it just because no one really knows about Case?</p>
<p>If the rating you are looking at uses admittance rate and/or yield as part of its criteria, this will work against Case. Apparently the admittance rate is going down, but it's just never going to match Ivy/Stanford/MIT/etc. - even after the Master Plan is done. What does admittance rate have to do with quality of education? Nothing. At best it's a status/prestige factor. </p>
<p>Case is known for small classes and new, excellent lab facilities and equipment. Put ratings aside and compare that with your other schools.</p>
<p>From all the reviews I've read about Case, all of them, even the people negative about their experience, say that you can get into ANY grad school from there. I think this means that you come out of there "knowing what you are supposed to know" about your field. Another common theme is that the education is better than its ratings. Also, they all say that Case will force you to learn how to plan your time so that grad school and/or working will be a breeze.</p>
<p>Besides, rankings are highly political, and Case cannot get into that upper echelon not because of academics, but other factors, like it's more regional than some others (1/3 are ohioans, so obviously it's not regional but more so than others). Case is also not as well-known in non-academic circles. I live in Ohio, and no one in my family knows much about it except my sister (who attends college in the near vicinity). It is defintely the tops though.</p>