<p>Why is Pratt ranked 30 in the nation in engineering? That seems kind of low; I mean, Duke is the #5 school in the United States. I am worried that with a $100,000 loan after 5 years (BioEgr B.S./M.S. program), I will not be able to pay the loans back after graduating from Pratt since so many schools are better than it and I won't be making enough many. What do you think? Do Pratt graduates get just as many high-salary opportunities as MITers and Caltechers on the day that recruiters come to the campus? :></p>
<p>HM - Wrong page in your link for the post - LAPeru's post is on page 4 at 20 per page.</p>
<p>UF - if you are really going be that controlled by rankings, please note where Duke's BME program is nationally, then contact Duke's career center and ask about how our graduates place and what kind of salaries they get.</p>
<p>Ultimate,</p>
<p>It is increasingly sounding to me like nothing will be able to convince you of the plentiful job opportunities available to our engineers, no matter what we have to say for you.</p>
<p>Pratt is overall #30, but you can see that our BME and EE grads are ranked much higher than that. They are highly sought after in all fields - and I believe we have tried to convince you of this multiple times.</p>
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<p>Hazmat - keep your comments relevant. Giving him a link to the lacrosse scandal is not relevant in any way, and I am at a loss for how to deal with you.</p>
<p>The link is to LAPeru's opines and facts regarding Pratt......she is a parent of a Pratt student.</p>
<p>Fine, click the link and go to page 4. Let the readers and mods decide whether you're actually trying to contribute to meaningful dialogue.</p>
<p>I stand by my original statement: you're intentionally giving people an irrelevant link (yes, they do happen to use the word "Pratt").</p>
<p>To clarify: Duke isn't the number 5 school in the nation. It's just ranked 5th in one particular publication. Regardless, it's an excellent school and the engineering school seems to suffer in the rankings because of its size, among other things. At the undergraduate level, it's probably quite a bit better than its ranking would indicate.</p>
<p>to reiterate what cavalier was saying, Duke is not the #5 school in the US. It just happens that US News has ranked it that way based on a few arbitrary criteria like alumni giving rate and retention rate. YOU, not US News, must be the judge of how good a school is for YOU.</p>
<p>To qualify everything said above - Duke is my #1 university, and I have ranked it on very subjective measures such as "where I went to school" and "where I work now." Many, many other qualified schools were in the running, and yet given the criteria mentioned above, all but one of them tied for last. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology came in second owing to my having taken classes there, and I would recommend it highly to anyone. Go Hardrockers!</p>
<p>Dr. G, you just made me chuckle in Bostock. Thank you for making this Sunday night.</p>
<p>Regarding "arbitrary criteria", US NEWS is a magazine whose ad rates are driven by subscription numbers (not news stand sales). US NEWS subscribers are generally middle-aged or older (ie Parents). Parents want to know their children will be happy, get enough attention and stay in school. Alumni giving and retention rate are ways to quantify this. That's why they're included in the methodology. It's really a parents ranking of the best undergrad schools for their kids. </p>
<p>As for Pratt, I agree its ranking suffers because of its small size.</p>
<p>South Dakota School of Mines and Technology: isn't it sad that I've actually seen this school. It's the one with the dinosaur prints along its sidewalks, right? It's got a pretty cool museum.<br>
I guess my comment is pretty irrelevent. Oh well. I've already been in enough trouble with the mods lately.</p>
<p>Why would that be sad?
And yeah, sounds like you were there - did you happen to see the giant dinosaur on the hill?</p>
<p>Yeah, I saw the giant dinosaur. I actually kind of liked the campus. It was in Sioux City or something, right? We were visiting the Badlands at the time (my dad's a geologist). I still remember trying to find the museum and not circling around campus several times.</p>
<p>Bite your tongue! Sioux City is in Iowa! SDSM&T is in <em>Rapid</em> City (and Sioux <em>Falls</em> is in South Dakota, but out East...not that there's anything wrong with that)</p>