<p>Well, I'm currently choosing schools for computer engineering, and a recent addition to my list is Northwestern (along with Stanford, Cornell, Purdue, and Georgia Tech). Here are how the schools stack up against each other in the USNews rankings:</p>
<ol>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Georgia Tech</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Purdue</li>
<li>Northwestern (defaults to here since their undergrad program is unranked)</li>
</ol>
<p>But, this chart shows an interesting point:</p>
<p>Northwestern is high with the Ivies, Stanford and MIT, and Georgia Tech doesn't even show up. Now, I know that this doesn't show job types and it doesn't show what degrees came from the university that were recruited, but:</p>
<p>Does this show that some rankings don't matter? would going to a lesser-ranked school give students more opportunities in job searching? What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Rankings are not nearly as important for engineering as they are for liberal arts and the humanities. An engineering degree is an engineering degree, just make sure it’s Abet accredited. What I looked into when applying to universities was how well recruited each respective college was, the academic and social environment were also factors for me.</p>
<p>It just depends on who they asked. If you ask business leaders, you’re going to get Ivy League schools near the top of the list. In the financial sector, you’ll get NYC schools. In engineering, you’ll get large state schools, etc.</p>
<p>For this reason, you need to ask yourself what your end goal is, then choose a school based on that. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s not true. ABET is a minimum standard. Most schools exceed the minimum standard, some more than others.</p>
<p>Higher ranked schools will pull in more employers. If you go to a school ranked 50 or lower in engineering, the vast majority of employers on campus will be from the surrounding area. A school in the top 10 will have recruiters from all over the country and from other countries. Higher ranked schools also bring in recruiters outside of engineering (finance, consulting, venture capital, etc) who will not visit lower ranked schools.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, if your goal is to be a process engineer making $50,000-$60,000 per year at age 30 in a food manufacturing plant in Centerville, Ohio, it doesn’t really matter if you go to Ohio State, Wright State, or Caltech. But if your goal is to work in R&D on the next generation fighter jet and make $100,000+ by age 30, Caltech can make that happen, where as Wright State probably won’t.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about those schools you mentioned above, they are all great schools in computer engineering. Don’t be too much concerned with the ranking. There are other factors you’d better consider more like location or environment. School environment in Stanford is really different from the one in Purdue, for example. </p>
<p>Their courses are top notch. Their professors are all fantastic. It’s just matter of how you will do well in such a strong competitive place. In engineering field, especially, we hire people by looking at their knowledge and skills, not from finding where they were graduated from.</p>
<p>So I have a different but related question. I am curious about how the rankings are done differently for Grad school versus Undergrad. In particular, I am curious about Univ of Rochester where my son applied. They are ranked in the 30’s for grad school but in the 70’s for undergrad.</p>
<p>What criteria is different for undergrad versus grad school?</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, you seem like someone who would know this.</p>
<p>It depends on which rankings, since they have different criteria. Some just use peer assessment or surveys, which make them mainly prestige rankings (which do influence employers and graduate schools). Others, particularly graduate school rankings, may have criteria like research output, student outcomes, etc. mixed in. You need to look at what each ranking actually includes.</p>
<p>Also note that there are fewer graduate programs than undergraduate programs, so it is not surprising for a school to be ranked higher for graduate, since some with high ranked undergraduate programs do not have graduate programs.</p>
<p>My daughter is also applying to graduate school in engineering right now. To assess grad schools in engineering she looked at the rankings, and looked at the specific research individual researchers or research groups do. She also looked at whether the school has their first year graduate students commit to a research group or whether the students are rotated through labs in first year before they make a choice in second. (She is passionate about a specific field so would like to go to work in the lab beginning in her first year. She has freinds who prefer to rotate through different labs for their first year.) U Rochester is an excellent school, congratuations if you son or daughter has been accepted. A grand accomplishment.</p>
<p>thanks for the input itisallforgotten. We will know in 2 weeks whether he got in. I too think it would be a good choice for him.</p>
<p>I just found it curious that many other engineering schools had their undergrad and grad rankings be much closer, like 10-15 spots difference so I was curious what criteria accounted for the big separation. If he gets in, I will ask at the school.</p>