<p>urbanite wrote - "From my understanding, the order of the best engineering schools goes, according to one of my teachers:
U of M
Mich Tech
MSU"</p>
<p>I'd be careful about the generalization and comparing Michigan Tech to Michigan State in engineering. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Tech was founded as -- and its specialty still is -- mining engineering; indeed, Tech was one of the nation's 1st mining engineering schools, along w/ the famed Colorodo School of Mines. While MTU now has a full range of engineering courses, mining is still the focus. Michigan State doesn't even offer mining engineering. Instead, MSU's specialties are materials, computer, design and bio/agricultural engineering (MTU doesn't even offer the latter). Research, in addition to teaching, is a strong component of MSU; don't forget, MSU is an AAU school, one of only about 70 nationwide, so research will be emphasized. While MTU has some research, it's not nearly as strong as MSU. Computer-aided design is very strong at MSU, and the automakers -- Ford and GM are leading contributors and, no doubt, future beneficiaries -- funds an auto-design laboratory on campus. The below link notes a 40K-foot expansion of MSU’s already quality auto-research facility:</p>
<p>Also, MSU's students are usually among the leading groups in design competitions: like the solar car and concrete canoe races. Undergrads travel to, and are frequently among the top finishers in other such competitions around the country. I rarely hear MTech's name come up in such competitions... Also, with the kind of sharing/free-flowing research among disciplines that's always encouraged at MSU, engineering is enhanced by (and enhances) other disciplines as well. For example, MSU doesn't, per se, have a nuclear engineering major, yet the design of MSU's cyclotron, among the world's most powerful, as well it's impending $100M expansion, was/is undertaken with the help of MSU's engineering design department. </p>
<p>MSU's a different kind of school, and while the majority of students are from Michigan, it's focus is more national/international -- it has a number of foreign students (and professors) so its outlook is different than Tech's.</p>
<p>This should not be seen as knocking Tech, because it IS a very good school. It's just that it's slant and focus are different from MSU's. Also, keep in mind that while MTU is mainly a specialty, tech/math oriented school, and MSU is more general (with much larger liberal arts and social science components), the 2 school's admissions stats are about even.</p>
<p>So, again, I’d be careful of ranking MSU with MTU, and certainly ranking MTU ahead of MSU. It simply doesn’t’ wash. One must decide what kind of program and kind of direction she/he wants – and what they want in their school – first, before deciding among such different E-Schools.</p>