How prominent is Engineering/Computer Science at Top Colleges?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>A lot of threads on CC devolve into discussions of the relative strength of engineering programs. Overall, I calculate that engineering students represent less than 12% of all undergraduates at the total of the USNWR Top 50 national universities. That number would be less if you included undergraduates at the nation’s top LACs. </p>

<p>Just to keep the numbers in perspective, the following colleges have either 1) fewer than 5% of their majors in engineering and computer science; or 2) no engineering program at all. </p>

<p>Colleges with <5% engineering/computer science majors or no engineering program at all</p>

<p>Princeton
Harvard
Yale
U Chicago
Columbia
Brown
Emory
Georgetown
U North Carolina
Wake Forest
Brandeis
W & M
Boston College
NYU</p>

<p>Taken from collegeboard.com, here are the representative percentages of engineering/computer science majors at the other USNWR Top 50 colleges. </p>

<p>% of majors in engineering/computer science & info, , College</p>

<p>71% , Rensselaer
66% , Georgia Tech
51% , MIT
40% , Cal Tech
36% , Carnegie Mellon
32% , Lehigh
31% , Case Western
18% , Cornell
18% , Penn State
17% , U Michigan
15% , Duke
15% , J Hopkins
15% , Vanderbilt
15% , UCSD
15% , U Illinois UC
14% , Wash U StL
14% , Northwestern
14% , Tufts
13% , Stanford
13% , Rice
13% , UC Berkeley
13% , UC Irvine
11% , UC Davis
11% , U Texas
10% , U Wisconsin
10% , Tulane
10% , U Florida
9% , U Virginia
9% , U Washington
8% , Notre Dame
8% , UCLA
8% , USC
8% , U Rochester
7% , U Penn
5% , Dartmouth
5% , UC S Barbara</p>

2

<p>Thanks, Hawkette, for looking into this.<br>

[quote]
Taken from collegeboard.com, here are the representative percentages of engineering/computer science majors at the other USNWR Top 50 colleges.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Looks like the list includes 'top' universities, not colleges. Do you have any information on percentages of engineering/computer science majors at LACs?</p>

3

<p>According to collegeboard.com, the only Top 20-ranked LAC with more than 5% in engineering/computer science is Harvey Mudd (55%).</p>

4

<p>Thanks hawkette. I don’t know the percentage of majors, but Smith College’s Picker Engineering Program is superb and highly sought after by students. Smith is the first and only accredited engineering program in the nation for women, and has a phenomenal approach to teaching engineering.</p>

<p>The quality of the engineering program is such that every Smith College engineering student with a 3.5 GPA is guaranteed admission to the graduate engineering schools at Princeton, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Notre Dame, and University of Michigan. </p>

<p>For more information on the program: Smith</a> College: Picker Engineering Program and at: Smith</a> College: Picker Engineering Program</p>

5

<p>NYU is merging with Polytechnic University, so they will in fact have an engineering program once again. With the immense size of NYU, I'm not sure if the number of engineering undergraduates will be above 5% or not though even after the merger.</p>

<p>I think you're mistaken about Columbia. It has quite a sizable engineering program.</p>

6

<p>just note Hawkette that Columbia has a separate college of engineering and applied science.</p>

7

<p>Of course Columbia has a sizable engineering program. collegeboard.com lists Fu separately, but the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has an enrollment of about 1400 or about 20% of the Columbia enrollment. Thanks for the correction.</p>

8

<p>The quality of the engineering program is such that every Smith College engineering student with a 3.5 GPA is guaranteed admission to the graduate engineering schools at Princeton, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Notre Dame, and University of Michigan.</p>

<p>Not to insult the power of the program, but it's not like any of those schools are engineering powerhouses (except Mich). I would say that most female graduates from top-notch engineering programs with 3.5s would be more or less shoo-ins in these programs.</p>

9

<p>^ Princeton and Johns Hopkins are no slouches in the engineering realm...</p>

10

<p>


Not to insult the power of the program, but it's not like any of those schools are engineering powerhouses (except Mich).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If anything, Princeton and Johns Hopkins have VERY solid engineering programs.</p>

<p>
[quote]
*USNEWS 2008 Engineering Ranking Compilation *</p>

<hr>

<p>Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)</p>

<ol>
<li>Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 4.9</li>
<li>Stanford University (CA) 4.7</li>
<li>University of California–Berkeley * 4.7</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology 4.6</li>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology * 4.5</li>
<li>U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign * 4.5</li>
<li>Cornell University (NY) 4.4
7. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 4.4</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 4.2</li>
<li>Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)* 4.2</li>
<li>University of Texas–Austin * 4.2
12. Princeton University (NJ) 4.1</li>
<li>Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison * 4.0
14. Johns Hopkins University (MD) 3.9</li>
<li>Northwestern University (IL) 3.9</li>
<li>Virginia Tech * 3.9</li>
<li>Pennsylvania State U.–University Park * 3.8</li>
<li>Rice University (TX) 3.8</li>
<li>Texas A&M Univ.–College Station * 3.8</li>
<li>Columbia University (NY) 3.7</li>
<li>Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY) 3.7</li>
<li>Univ. of California–Los Angeles * 3.7</li>
<li>Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities * 3.7</li>
<li>University of Washington * 3.7</li>
<li>Duke University (NC) 3.6</li>
<li>Ohio State University–Columbus * 3.6</li>
<li>Univ. of California–San Diego * 3.6</li>
<li>Univ. of Maryland–College Park * 3.6</li>
<li>North Carolina State U.–Raleigh * 3.5</li>
<li>University of Florida * 3.5</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania 3.5</li>
<li>Univ. of Southern California 3.5</li>
<li>Harvard University (MA) 3.4</li>
<li>University of California–Davis * 3.4</li>
<li>University of Colorado–Boulder * 3.4</li>
<li>University of Virginia * 3.4</li>
<li>Arizona State University * 3.3

[/quote]
</li>
</ol>

11

<p>If you're going to use USNews rankings, at least use the graduate ones.</p>

<p>As for Princeton, it's a quality program, but not a powerhouse. It's very small, which means it doesn't offer the specialization needed to be a truly great engineering program.</p>

12

<p>


</p>

<p>for the graduate engineering rankings,</p>

<p>Princeton ---- 18th
JHU --------- 27th
Notre Dame -- 49th
Dartmouth --- 57th
Tufts -------- 87th</p>

<p>seriously, these placements are not something to be proud of...</p>

<p>if anything, such placements is pathetic. at the graduate level, department ranking is everything.</p>

<p>unless, of course, the purpose of you going into Dartmouth's engineering PhD is only to boast to your cousins and friends "i goto Dartmouth"</p>

13

<p>^ Princeton has all the traditional engineering fields...(despite its small size).</p>

<p>Chemical
Civil & Environmental
Computer Science
Electrical
Mechanical & Aerospace
Operations Research & Financial Engineering</p>

<p>Princeton also has a fairly high number of faculty members in the National Academy of Engineering (compared to some other engineering powerhouses):</p>

<p>Georgia Tech: 26
Princeton: 21
Michigan: 22
Purdue: 18</p>

<p>Berkeley: 75
Stanford: 85
MIT: 109</p>

14

<p>^ but it's not the ** school ** that comes up immediately when you think of "top engineering schools"</p>

<p>it's good despite its small size and all, but its nowhere near "top engineering schools" such as MIT, Stanford, UCB. </p>

<p>Now, if any of the three was included in the placements list, that IS something to be proud of.</p>

15

<p>I don't mean they don't have the traditional enginerring fields, I mean they don't have enough specialization. Take civil engineering. There's structural, water, waste, transportation, and half a dozen other sub-fields. I've talked to people who were forced into specializations that wasn't their top choices as their top choices were subpar in their schools. I had a friend who got a degree in water civil engineering but ended up doing structural instead, and wished he got into a school where structural was a good program.</p>

<p>That's the problem with Princeton.</p>

16

<p>Oh yeah. I agree. Strictly speaking, undergraduate level, Princeton and JHU have very solid programs. I should have posted up the graduate rankings given the topic at hand was with regards to the graduate programs at those respective schools. :-p</p>

17

<p>graduate "overall" ranking is a joke. i'd use department rankings instead.</p>

18

<p>The original point of this thread was not to use any rankings at all. This is kinda the opposite of the OP maybe intended. lol</p>

19

<p>Hawkette, is there any way you can break down the numbers by CS and Computer Engineering? Can you also include LAC numbers? Thank you.</p>

20

<p>Just because the departments are small doesn't mean that they're bad. Several of those <5% CS/Eng major schools have top-notch CS programs.</p>