<p>It’s time for me to decide on a college, and this oddity in the US News rankings raises some important questions.</p>
<p>Shown here are the “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs” with overall ranking and difference shown in parentheses.</p>
<li>MIT (7, +6)</li>
<li>Stanford (5, +3)</li>
<li>California-Berkeley (20, +17)</li>
<li>Cal Tech (7, +3), Illinois (42, +38)</li>
</ol>
<p>Look at Illinois! 38 places higher! It’s the opposite of one of my other choices, Penn, which is at least 20 (probably 30-some) places lower. Why is this important? Because I have to choose between them (and Carnegie Mellon, but their difference is a more reasonable +14) today! Can quality in engineering (not that US News is the authority, but let’s use it as a decent indicator for the time being) make up for a university’s overall quality? The other way - can a university’s overall quality overshadow a relatively weak engineering program?</p>
<p>Those are the general questions, and here’s my specific situation: I’ll be studying EE (at CMU, it’s ECE) at one of these places in the fall. Cost is a minor issue, UIUC is half the price, but it’s not one of my main concerns. It’s also hard for me to choose on which best prepares me for my future, because I don’t know if I’ll be getting an MS, an MBA, working, etc. I’m set on engineering or science - no worries about wanting to switch to the humanities after a semester, and I can reasonably see myself at any one of the three.</p>
<p>Anyone with thoughts on the questions presented (engineering vs. overall), why Illinois is so high for engineering yet doesn’t seem to get the same respect as the others, or what I should do, please share what you have to say.</p>