<p>When asked which university is considered to be the best in the world, many would respond with "Harvard."</p>
<p>However, when looking at the engineering department, there's much to be desired. (one could make the case that Harvard students can take engineering courses at MIT, but this is just looking at a university by itself)</p>
<p>In fact, this phenomenon seems to be quite prevalent among top schools. MIT and Caltech suffer from relatively weak humanities, Yale is lacking in engineering, etc. etc.</p>
<p>So the question is, which university, in your opinion, is the most well-rounded in terms of the strength of its departments and courses/resources offered? (I'm referring to undergrad, btw)</p>
<p>No school is perfect in everything. I would however, consider Carnegie Mellon with a top engineering, CS, business, sciences, and drama/musical/arts department. </p>
<p>If only NYU had engineering/tech it would probably win as it also has a top business and drama/musical arts department. </p>
<p>I really can't think of other stuff at the moment (perhaps Upenn? but I don't know about their engineering/tech either) and Cornell is a bit too sciency and not enough business :)) </p>
<p>I would just pick an Ivy or something but if you care about the arts and tech as well as business; probably Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>PS: Umich is great contender too along with Cal. Once again it depends on whether or not drama/fine arts is included in "Well Roundedness"</p>
<p>CMU is missing in Humanities, I think. And I've never heard people raving about their sciences as much as they do about drama, CS, and business.</p>
<p>Stanford, on the other hand, is known for Engineering and CS, business (no undergrad school, but an Economics major that is designed as prep for grad school), sciences, and humanities. Perhaps they're lacking a bit in the arts?</p>
<p>Right, but if you included fine arts then it'd probably make up for the humanities. The sciences are great (55k avg starting salaries) but are usually overshadowed by engineering/CS. </p>
<p>Stanford lacks arts/business (I mean if you wanted to include Econ as business then Uchicago and a lot of other colleges would work too such as Cornell). I definitely see Cal/Umich though.</p>
<p>Actually, MIT is good in a lot of liberal arts subjects, as well as business and engineering. Wisconsin, Illinois, and Virginia are well-rounded too.</p>
<p>In terms of which school is most well-rounded, Yale has top-ranked schools of art, drama, music, architecture, law, business, medicine, environmental studies, public health and others, which gives it more breadth than almost anywhere else. Despite its breadth, all of these institutions are accessible and walkable, which I find remarkable. They are also uniquely accessible to undergraduates. Other schools such as Harvard and Northwestern have med schools but they are located many, many miles away from the campus - in Cornell's case, hundreds of miles! I'd say some runners-up for "most well rounded" would include UCLA, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon and Columbia.</p>
<p>"Duke is not known for anything engineering/business"</p>
<p>umm, I may be biased, but I have to disagree. Duke has one of the oldest Biomedical engineering programs that ranks 2nd in the nation. Also, even though Duke does not have an undergrad business degree, the economics program is outstanding (economics is the most popular major at Duke).</p>
<p>I think Duke is a very well-rounded school that provides great academics, an intelligent student body, an amazing social scene, and is ranked #5 by US NEWS (if you follow that stuff, I personaly think it's bull...). Also, the campus is pretty spectacular and provides a "real" college atmosphere.</p>
<p>Being good in one field does not qualify for an overall engineering program and I've already said that I did not consider Econ as business because if you did then almost every top school would be well-rounded.</p>
<p>I was thinking this myself! I have nothing to add but my congratulations and interest in this topic.</p>
<p>And to the poster who said fine arts make up for Humanities and Liberal Arts: they most certainly do ot! That's like saying computer programming makes up for chemistry. But... someone has said that too. Haha.</p>
<p>I think in general we can conclude that no college is perfect and we all have to cut at least one field/sub-field from consideration when picking one.</p>
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Yale is not lacking in engineering. Quality-wise, Yale has the strongest engineering program in the country, ranking above Caltech: <a href="http://www.sciencewatch.com/nov-dec...htm#Engineering%5B/url%5D">http://www.sciencewatch.com/nov-dec...htm#Engineering</a> This is according to the ISI/Sciencewatch, the most respected scientific organization in the world. ISI's statistics on research quality are what give or deny tenure to many university faculty around the world. You may be confusing Yale 10 years ago with Yale today. There has been an enormous investment in that school's engineering programs.
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<p>...huh?? UC Santa Barbara is second in the nation in engineering? MIT and Berkeley aren't even in the top ten? Where did you find those rankings?</p>
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I was thinking this myself! I have nothing to add but my congratulations and interest in this topic.