Princeton Reviews new graduate engineering rankings

<p>MIT, stanford, Caltech, etc not on the list. What do you guys think? Joke or valid rankings? The rankings were based on the following;</p>

<p>“These engineering educational programs were ranked using a combination of quantitative criteria, including GRE scores, undergraduate GPA, percentage of applicants accepted and percentage of top undergraduates applying.”</p>

<li> University of California, Santa Barbara<br></li>
<li>Duke University<br></li>
<li>University of Virginia<br></li>
<li>Michigan State University<br></li>
<li>The Johns Hopkins University<br></li>
<li>University of Maryland, College Park<br></li>
<li>Rice University<br></li>
<li>University of Texas at Austin<br></li>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology<br></li>
<li>University of Notre Dame<br></li>
<li>University of Delaware<br></li>
<li>Lehigh University<br></li>
<li>Washington University<br></li>
<li>University of New Mexico<br></li>
<li>The Ohio State University - Columbus<br></li>
<li>University of California, San Diego<br></li>
<li>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<br></li>
<li>University of Toledo<br></li>
<li>Dartmouth College<br></li>
<li>University of Michigan - Ann Arbor</li>
</ol>

<p><a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/find/engineering.asp[/url]”>http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/find/engineering.asp</a></p>

<p>Wow... certainly some suprises on there. I guess based on the criteria given, these schools fit that bill (agreeing on the criteria is another issue). Still, I think MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and UT-Austin should have received some benefit for their faculty strength, as they are the schools with the most NAE members on faculty. Looks like research output wasn't a factor either.</p>

<p>Yes, wow. It seems closer to a joke to me. A top graduate program must have a top research program. And I don't see how UCSB can come even close to the powers of MIT and Stanford. What I always tell students is that the US News and World Report rankings are really a great graduate school indicator, even if they are for undergraduate programs.</p>

<p>I goto to Duke and we are far from the best Engineering School overall.</p>

<p>BME maybe, not all the engineering combined though.</p>

<p>I saw this too and I was really surprised. I know UCSB is really good at Mat Sci and a few other things, but #1 overall??? It seems like they are just trying to do something different to get some attention.</p>

<p>My primary reaction is that Princeton Review's reviewers must be smoking something highly illegal.</p>

<p>Here are my problems:
1. The average GRE quant score for engineering applicants is a 720, with an SD of 80. The GRE differences between accepted students at above-average schools are almost certainly not statistically meaningful. I have trouble understanding how average GRE scores are relevant when there's such a small difference between the averages for all of the programs. (USNews lists only 12 schools out of 93 with an engineering GRE quant average below 720.)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>What does "percentage of top undergraduates applying" mean?</p></li>
<li><p>According to USNews, Caltech has the lowest percentage of applicants accepted and the highest average quantitative GRE score. Based on their stated formula alone (not to mention reasonable opinion), I have no idea why Caltech isn't on this list.</p></li>
<li><p>Undergraduate GPA is obviously a skewed measure -- it favors schools who have a lot of applicants from less-competitive undergrad programs.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>EDIT: Maybe MIT/Stanford/Caltech/Berkeley didn't provide data to PR?</p>

<p>Actually, these are the rankings for "Best Parties". ;-)</p>

<p>If it's for "Best Parties," then how the heck did Rensellaer make the list!? ;)</p>

<p>MIT? Stanford? Berkeley? Caltech? Illinois? CMU? Purdue? Cornell? Great list. I especially like how Michigan barely made the list while Michigan State took 4th.</p>

<p>Hmmm....</p>

<p>I went to Michigan State as an undergrad. True, I ended up a Math major, but I was an EE major initially. Even MSU knew that Michigan's engineering program was better.</p>

<p>Now, the only thing that may be a factor (and I am reaching) is the job-placement rate. Michigan State always had a better job-placement service. University of Maryland has a high placement because of all the software contractors in the DC-area....BUT...their MS in Software Engineering is offered by a satellite U-Maryland campus....not College Park.</p>

<p>So........<strong><em>shrugs</em></strong></p>

<p>That is a very interesting list.</p>

<p>I'm an MSU alum/fan, but even I'm a tad suspicious of this list. How could Purdue not even be on it? It does seem the smaller programs are favored -- MSU, UVA, Duke and Rice, for example, are major but smaller than other major programs in thier respective states (like MSU's is smaller than UM's, esp on the grad level)... MSU does usually shine -- in most research programs -- when impact publications of its faculty are ranked... not a factor, apparently, in this ranking, though.</p>

<p>Replying to the question:"Joke or valid rankings";short answer is "joke". Where is UC Berkeley, MIT, CMU,Stanford, Caltech , VTin the ranking. These are some of the top engineering schools in US.</p>

<p>


</p>

<p>What kind of list is this?? I agree a top graduate program must have great research programs. Here is a list of top 20 programs by annual research expenditure (2005 data), in million $:</p>

<ol>
<li>MIT...........216.5</li>
<li>Georgia Tech...........205.3</li>
<li>Purdue...........195.8</li>
<li>Texas A&M...........176.6</li>
<li>UIUC...........175.1</li>
<li>Michigan...........165.3</li>
<li>USC...........147.4</li>
<li>UCSD...........138.3</li>
<li>Maryland...........133.2</li>
<li>Stanford...........130.4</li>
<li>CMU...........123.8</li>
<li>Berkeley...........119.9</li>
<li>Penn State...........117.4</li>
<li>Wisconsin...........116.5</li>
<li>Cornell...........109.5</li>
<li>Ohio State...........102.7</li>
<li>UT Austin...........98.8</li>
<li>Florida...........89.9</li>
<li>NC State...........86.2</li>
<li>U of Washington...........82.9</li>
</ol>

<p>Just for reference, here's annual research expenditure of PR's schools:</p>

<ol>
<li>University of California, Santa Barbara...........53.8</li>
<li>Duke University...........49.4</li>
<li>University of Virginia...........47.0</li>
<li>Michigan State University...........25.0</li>
<li>The Johns Hopkins University...........53.3</li>
<li>University of Maryland, College Park...........133.2</li>
<li>Rice University...........32.2</li>
<li>University of Texas at Austin...........98.8</li>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology...........205.3</li>
<li>University of Notre Dame...........19.4</li>
<li>University of Delaware...........29.9</li>
<li>Lehigh University...........28.2</li>
<li>Washington University...........46.3</li>
<li>University of New Mexico...........25.1</li>
<li>The Ohio State University - Columbus...........102.7</li>
<li>University of California, San Diego ...........138.3</li>
<li>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute...........34.6</li>
<li>University of Toledo...........???</li>
<li>Dartmouth College...........22.5</li>
<li>University of Michigan - Ann Arbor...........165.3</li>
</ol>

<p>How about corporate recruiter reputation? I'll take NVidia and AMD as examples, two high profile hardware companies that are extremely selective with hiring. Here are the campuses they recruit at (in no particular order):</p>

<p>NVidia:
Rice
Georgia Tech
Purdue
UIUC
University of Waterloo
CMU
Wisconsin
Cornell
MIT
Michigan
UT Austin
Berkeley
Stanford
UC Irvine
Cal Tech
UCSD</p>

<p>AMD:
Rice
UIUC
Georgia Tech
Purdue
CMU
Berkeley
Texas A&M
Cornell
MIT
Wisconsin
UT Austin
RIT
Berkeley
Michigan
RPI
Stanford</p>

<p>The only ones in the top ten who might belong there are GT, UT Austin, and Rice, andy they're ranked at the bottom of the ten. This is definitely a joke.</p>