<p>Most of us know US News has ranked various engineering and comp. sci programs and a lot of people recite the list from memory. I am a parent of a high school jr. Many people are basing their college selection strategy, at least in part, by these rankings. The rankings seem to go from 1-100..The question is...Is there really a big difference in certain schools from the perspective of academics (learning, subject matter relevant to your degree) as well as the ability to obtain employment (ie, how well recruited is the school and will the student have more employment post-college opportunities) ? In other words, by the time the student "walks away" from the university and you are evaluating how much debt you are in (vs. how much debt you have avoided) vs. the job opportunities you are afforded vs, how much you have learned, is their really a difference and if so, how much of one?</p>
<p>We can leave college quality of life issues out for the time being as a separate subject (not to say that this is unimportant).</p>
<p>Although a broad discussion is interesting, a couple of more specific questions that would be me...</p>
<p>Is University of Illinois and Georgia Tech (ranked really high in these areas, say #5-#10) or Carneige Mellon (high) or Purdue (high) that much better (looks like tons better on a ranking list )than, say Case Western reserve (#35) or RPI ?<br>
Or what happens if you go to, say WUSTL, ranked high overall, but way down
in enginneering or comp sci.</p>
<p>The rankings give the perception that there are "huge" of "significant" differences in engineering or comp. science colleges. Is this true ? Or are there breakpoints where there are no significant differences between some of these insitutions ? </p>
<p>If someone can provide some insight as far as comparing these schools from the perspective of the above questions, it would be much welcome.
By the time you compare the classes side-by-side (which all seem similar to me), it is hard to see the big differences in some of these schools.</p>
<p>Although a broad discussion may be interesting, I am curious how U of I compares to Case Western.. If U of I is ranked, say #5 and Case Western
ranked in the 30's (with seeming similar type admissions policies, thus the students caliber is the same?), is U of I really that good (in light of the questions raised in the first paragraph.</p>
<p>My first "guess" is that U of I/Purdue/GA TEch classes must be very large and a lot of TA's are running around, and that perhaps the students don't get as much individual help. U of I out-of-state tuition for these majors is roughly $24K (I think they charge according to majors), which seems out of sight to me for a state school. Are the employers flocking to these higher ranked institutions or will the kid be "that much smarter" ? Is this whole game overrated? Are employers flocking to higher ranked colleges to recruit from with each student having a lot more opportunities?</p>
<p>What are the significant breakpoints on computer science/engineering colleges to where there are significant differences ? If someone is bored, I be curious how people would rank computer science/engineering colleges by group where there are no significant differences, in order that breakpoints would be more visible. The quality of life and costs seem to be much easier to ascertain from there....</p>
<p>Thanks for reading a large post !</p>