<p>in the us rankings, state schools such as uiuc and umich are ranked higher than cornell in their undergraduate engineering programs.</p>
<p>how do they determine the rankings and in terms of difficulty, how do uiuc and umich compare?</p>
<p>there should be an explanation of the ranking process along with the rankings</p>
<p>Here's what USNews says about the method used to determine Engineering rankings:</p>
<p>Methodology: Best undergraduate engineering programs</p>
<p>The U.S. News rankings of undergraduate programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty who rated each program they are familiar with on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). The deans and faculty members were surveyed in spring 2005. We have separate rankings for schools that offer doctoral degrees in engineering and schools whose terminal degree in engineering is a bachelor's or master's. Research at the graduate level often influences the undergraduate curriculum, and schools that have doctoral programs in engineering tend to offer the widest possible range of offerings. Students who prefer a program focused on undergraduates can consult the list of top programs at schools whose terminal degree is the bachelor's or master's. Fifty percent of those surveyed returned ratings of the group whose terminal degree in engineering is a bachelor's or master's; 59 percent did so for the doctoral group. We also asked for nominations of the best programs in specialty areas; those receiving the most mentions in each appear here. Schools offering any courses in a specialty are eligible to be ranked in that specialty.</p>
<p>I believe that USNEWS and world's methodology of ranking engineering programs, b-programs, and others is ridiculous.</p>
<p>their basically saying, RATE THIS PROGRAM ON A SCALE OF 1-5, i mean come on.. How a program containing a hundred faculty, a dozen concentrations, a few buildings, a research facility (if applicable), be rated on a scale of 1-5... They are basically asking for the opinion(s) of those surveyed.. For instance, state schools such as Penn state's B-program is ranked higher than a prestigous school like BC, and even a not-so-prestigous but well known school liek BU..</p>
<p>that's why it's an approximation and rankings shouldn't be taken as seriously as people take them. They're a guide, not a definitive answer. HY and P control the top 3 spots year to year, and move around a little each time. Whose to say which one is actually better than the other two and how can that change so frequently based on who hired extra faculty, accepted a small incoming class, or had a greater percentage of alumni donate that year? Exactly, it doesn't change things at all.</p>