http://engineering-schools.startclass.com/ Is this accurate? Didn’t think USC had a good engineering program, or at least not better than any ivy’s.
The most heavily weighted factor in this sites calculation (57%) is the quality of the graduate school based on US News and World Reports criteria. Only 8% of the rating is undergraduate department quality. Whether or not this list is accurate depends on what criteria are most important to you - do you care more about graduate or undergraduate quality? How much do you care about the other factors that are part of their “smart rating” calculation?
USC is one point lower than one Ivy, and tied with 3 others. One point is probably not statistically significant.
You should research what matters to you, not just go off some score on a random web site.
Treat each ranking list as just one data point. If looking for undergrad, pay more attention to the lists that focus on that. But don’t get hung up on rankngs. Most ABET accredited schools could be a good choice, if the right “fit” for a particular student.
Also, generally speaking you shouldn’t hold the Ivies in any sort of special regard in engineering. Really, outside of Cornell and Princeton (and a lesser extent Columbia) the Ivies aren’t particularly great an engineering.
I agree with @boneh3ad.about the other ivies and engineering. Applicants just are so wrapped up about being at an ivy but in the engineering world the other universities are more suited for studying engineering. As far as USC, it has a very good engineering school and its grads so well in the job market and in research. Look up the person whom USC’s engineering school is named after and is a graduate of, Viterbi is one of the founders of Qualcomm and very well-regarded in the engineering world.
I think using single alumni who went on to be hyper-successful and found companies and things like that is a poor way to support the idea that a particular school is good. For someone like Viterbi, he would have likely been just as successful if he had gone to UCLA or any number of other places. For the average student, the more important point is that the graduates do well finding jobs and being successful at them.
There are several engineering schools that are stronger than Ivy engineering departments; especially in the traditional disciplines of Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical. Notwithstanding Cornell’s quality, there are a handful of schools I would choose over Cornell for Chemical; University of Delaware to name one. And for something like Materials Science Engineering, it’s hard to beat the University of Akron or the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, for example. In the Ivy League’s own backyard you have great engineering departments at Clarkson University, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Rochester, Drexel University, Villanova University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Of course there’s MIT down the street from Harvard.