<p>averby,</p>
<p>JHU is an odd one on your top-5 list. As for Northwestern, take a look at its NRC 95 percentile “S”/“R” rankings:</p>
<p>Mechanical 2/3
Industrial 2/6
Material 3/3
Civil & Env 6/8
Chemical & Biological 7/8
Electrical & Computer 8/20
Biomedical 11/10</p>
<p>Definitely Cornell</p>
<p>MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Northwestern, Michigan, Cornell, Princeton, JHU, Georgia Tech</p>
<p>^^That is a good list. Add CMU.</p>
<p>bumppppppp</p>
<p>I do want to correct a statement I made above. I included JHU as a non-elite in engineering. That is obviously wrong.</p>
<p>
How many of these great engineering schools produced a Marshall and/or a Rhodes Scholar this year like Duke and Harvard? None.</p>
<p>[Baltazar</a> A. Zavala | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/2010/12/10/zavala-up-harvard-year/]Baltazar”>http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/2010/12/10/zavala-up-harvard-year/)
[Duke</a> Senior Receives Rhodes Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/11/rhodes.html]Duke”>http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/11/rhodes.html)
[Allie</a> Speidel Recipient of the 2011 Marshall Scholarship - Duke University Blue Devils | Official Athletics Site - GoDuke.com](<a href=“http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=205044198]Allie”>Allie Speidel Recipient of the 2011 Marshall Scholarship - Duke University)</p>
<p>I know an engineering student at Stanford who didn’t get accepted to Harvey Mudd.
From my experiences, I’d put Harvey Mudd, Berkeley, and Cooper Union at the top.</p>
<p>university of Illinois-urbana champaign is being completely overlooked in this thread which is 2nd only tp MIT in engineering in the country</p>
<p>Question: would you honestly choose the University of Illinois over Harvard engineering if you were accepted to both and they cost the same? Hey, UIUC is an elite engineering school! Harvard engineering is pathetic at like #30 in the nation. 
</p>
<p>Personally, I’d choose Harvard over Illinois (assuming Harvard offers the major I want of course). It’s not as if as a Harvard engineering grad you’ll be ill-prepared for a career in engineering. On the contrary. There’s a reason that Harvard engineering students high school stats would destroy the stats of IL engineering students (who are also very accomplished, but not at Harvard’s level). Are all these students attending Harvard insane to choose to study engineering there? They could have easily gone to Ga Tech, Purdue, IL, UMich instead. No, there are several logical factors behind their choice. And it mostly boils down to the university as a whole. Harvard engineering still has great facilities, amazing professors, and the ability to conduct breakthrough research in an intimate atmosphere. And your peers in the engineering school will be top notch.</p>
<p>I think department/school specific rankings are often unnecessarily over-weighted in making a decision. In some highly specialized fields like film or international diplomacy (i.e. not offered at many places), it makes sense to choose a school based on that reputation since there is some alumni connections and a lot of knowledge of the programs in the industry. But in other things like English, history, psychology, public policy, and even engineering, I’d argue it’s not that significant. </p>
<p>I will concede that huge engineering schools that are also well-known do have a lot of on campus recruitment from engineering firms. So that is certainly a positive on their end. But a Harvard engineering grad can still easily find a job. On top of that, many engineering grads are going into industries like consulting/finance/banking, and a Harvard degree will give them a leg up on other industries.</p>
<p>Another point - while it’s certainly true that certain schools are known in particular for one major, do you honestly think majoring in something besides that one is an odd choice? Let’s take for your BME example and UPenn. Yes, UPenn is particularly known for BME, but do you think a mechanical engineering student there is any less impressive or they’re receiving a significantly worse education from inferior faculty members than their peers in the BME department? Hardly. While there is certainly validity to the department rankings, it’s based on how well-known they are due to research output historically. But that doesn’t mean those in other majors are short-changed; they receive the same amount of attention, still great faculty, and access to facilities and research opportunities.</p>
<p>Now, I’m not saying schools like Purdue are bad choices for those seeking an engineering degree. Purdue would be a great choice for somebody seeking that field. I just think there should be other factors at play when making a decision, especially when about 40% of engineers transfer out anyways (so the strength of the school as a whole should be considered). There is a reason that Harvard engineering attracts such great students and faculty despite being ranked “poorly.” </p>
<p>One guy’s opinion of course. Carry on!</p>
<p>Why not try Kettering?</p>
<p>They’re really small, but if you want a job afterward, they’re a pretty darn good choice. </p>
<p>What everyone here seems to be doing is talking about “bragging rights”. Trust an actual engineer, they’re gonna take someone with actual real-world experience (which 2 of the 4 years at Kettering are devoted to (quarter system, 1/2 a year is spent at an engineering job in partnership with the school (google “cooperative education”, Kettering leads the way)) over a theory-based engineering education (which is what all the ivies are). </p>
<p>Would you be in a lab the second week at Harvard learning material properties by pouring molten aluminum yourself? Doubt it. Kettering even has a full crash safety center (with an actual deceleration sled) that undergraduates have access to. Nobody, and I mean nobody else can say that.</p>
<p>Plus, #2 in Mechanical for non doctorate universities doesn’t hurt either.</p>
<p>I’m with you on the co-op advantage, but Kettering is not really elite. There are more prestigious and better known schools with co-op engineering programs. Northeastern, RIT, Georgia Tech, Drexel, to name a few, plus many others with optional co-op. Not saying Kettering is a bad school, but this thread is about engineering elites. Doubt many outside of Michigan have even heard of Kettering. For the B+ student who wants to study engineering at a small school in the midwest, it may be a good fit. I don’t think that’s the target demographic of this particular thread.</p>
<p>“Doubt many outside of Michigan have even heard of Kettering.”</p>
<p>You really think Northeastern and Drexel are that well known nationally?</p>
<p>Kettering was once called the General Motors Institute.</p>
<p>Can’t speak for the rest of the country, but here in the east, Northeastern and Drexel are well known (though even they are not engineering elites). I suppose their Division I sports programs help.</p>
<p>Being called General Motors Institute is not exactly something to brag about nowadays.</p>
<p>“Can’t speak for the rest of the country, but here in the east, Northeastern and Drexel are well known (though even they are not engineering elites).”</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s why you shouldn’t have said that those schools were more prestgious in the first place…</p>
<p>What sort of engineering are you looking at? Aerospace? Civil? Chemical? Electrical? Biological? Architectural? MIT would probably be the top player, but your original post was too vague to give a real response.</p>
<p>As far as co-op goes, Northwestern has one of the oldest programs in the country (since 1940). About 30% of the students participate and they work for the same employer for at least 4 quarters. This year, a NU senior was named National Co-op of the Year. Here’s the typical co-op schedule:<br>
[Co-op</a> Schedule: McCormick Office of Career Development: McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://co-op.mccormick.northwestern.edu/current/empschedule.html]Co-op”>http://co-op.mccormick.northwestern.edu/current/empschedule.html)</p>
<p>Here’s CO-OP Q&A from GA Tech [Georgia</a> Tech :: Division of Professional Practice :: Undergraduate Cooperative Education Program](<a href=“http://www.coop.gatech.edu/faq.php]Georgia”>http://www.coop.gatech.edu/faq.php) It explains the difference between a co-op and an internship.</p>