<p>That’s definitely true that each department is different. Once again, feel free to check [CULPA</a> - Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info%5DCULPA”>http://www.culpa.info) for reviews on professors. I don’t think listening to individual stories is appropriate given the wealth of information on teaching quality.</p>
<p>1) Check your prospective major
2) See what the requirements are
3) Check the classes on culpa to see reviews by students</p>
<p>I’d like to point out that there’s a difference between quality of research and quality of teaching. Our mathematics department is top 10 within the world, but the teaching is even worse than the IEOR department. Professors progress in their careers by publishing research, not by teaching students well. Sometimes teaching and researching go hand in hand, but often times professors relegate teaching responsibilities for researching. Sometimes, the professor wasn’t born in this country and barely speaks the language. Hence, a professor with influence in the department can be a terrible teacher and vice versa.</p>
<p>I have many friends who are engineers and few of us are pleased with the quality of the education. These students are majoring in Applied Math, Applied Physics, Chemical Engineering, and Computer Science. We’ve had a couple classes that have been good/passable but the majority have been quite bad. I can’t speak to BME, MechE, or Civil but once again, there’s a wealth of information on [CULPA</a> - Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info%5DCULPA”>http://www.culpa.info).</p>
<p>WAIT?! COlumbia HAS an ENRGINRING SCHOOL@?#@?#!@? WHAT!!! I woulDve appPLied THenn… I thought it was a two year college!</p>
<p>Noticed something interesting the other day…I looked through the people who were teaching the IEOR core classes, and there are at least 5 who have comments like “worst professor ever” and “avoid at all costs”. I didn’t bother looking through everyone, but as I said, these are just for the core classes (like 4150, 4004, 4106, 4404).</p>
<p>[CULPA</a> - Jose Blanchet](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info/professors/4995]CULPA”>http://www.culpa.info/professors/4995)
[CULPA</a> - Guillermo Gallego](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info/professors/2497]CULPA”>http://www.culpa.info/professors/2497)
[CULPA</a> - Mariana Olvera-Cravioto](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info/professors/3158]CULPA”>http://www.culpa.info/professors/3158)
[CULPA</a> - Jay Sethuraman](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info/professors/2026]CULPA”>http://www.culpa.info/professors/2026)
[CULPA</a> - Ward Whitt](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info/professors/1666]CULPA”>http://www.culpa.info/professors/1666)</p>
<p>Granted, the one IEOR prof I have had has been very very solid (but then again he works in industry and lectures here on the side). But going by these reviews, I can’t say I’m very excited for the rest of the curriculum next year…</p>
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<p>There are some gems in the math department like Lip****z and Lauda. The difference between IEOR and math is that you can’t avoid specific IEOR people because they teach core classes which typically have only 1 section. On the other hand, there are usually at least 2-3 sections for math classes all the way up to linear and ODE.</p>
<p>It seems that the study pertains to Doctorla programs only:
[2010</a> Rankings: Doctoral Programs in America - Home - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/page/NRC-Rankings/321/]2010”>http://chronicle.com/page/NRC-Rankings/321/)</p>
<p>Gallego is good, but his lectures/hws are way too easy and exams are super hard… (same for Kachani)</p>
<p>Sethuraman tends to dwell on topic… </p>
<p>Iyengar talks way too fast, and not very organized… </p>
<p>Sigman is the best. Dehnad is very good too (but I believe he no longer teaches at Columbia).</p>
How can universities that have virtually identical quality of students and faculty , and equally rigorous curriculum , have one with " significantly better " engineering program ? Is this based on any objective metrics or is this an emotional response ?