<p>Looking at the Reed link for sciences and engineering, the top 4 schools always struck me as more theory-based, which is usually what grad students like. Engineering majors as a whole are less inclined to go to grad school because they don’t need it to be successful, so I’d be wary about using phd productivity to judge quality. I’d imagine the opposite is true for some of the more academic, non pre-professional fields, such as the humanities.</p>