<p>How rigorous is the engineering program at U of R? What is it's reputation? I am on the other coast, and no one here seems to have heard of it....</p>
<p>UR’s engineering is rigorous and well respected among those in academia, government labs (i.e. Los Alamos), and major engineering firms–even if the average guy on the street hasn’t heard of it.</p>
<p>I’m also wondering about the strength of the engineering program. I’m deciding between Lehigh and Rochester for chemical engineering. Rochester offered me some merit scholarship but Lehigh has been ranked for Engineering by US News and World Report (#40) and Rochester didn’t even make the list.</p>
<p>What list are you looking at?
Rochester ranks 38th in that USNEWS graduate engineering and Lehigh ranks 42nd.
[Rankings</a> - Best Engineering Schools - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/rankings/page+2]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/rankings/page+2)</p>
<p>I just bought the magazine (2009-2010) and for UNDERGRADUATE engineering it is not ranked</p>
<p>If you look at the research $$ UR gets - on asee.org - it’s over $21M, which is substantial for an engineering program. Lehigh gets $26M but if you then look at the sources, UR gets $16M from the Feds, while Lehigh gets about $13M and $7.5M from the state (while UR gets very little from the state). What does that mean? If you then look at expenditures, you find that UR spends a wicked huge amount on optics - over $66M - while Lehigh’s biggest research center is The Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS). This center is for big civil engineering projects and that is where most of the state money (and industry money) goes. </p>
<p>Much of UR’s money also goes to biomed, a program that gets no money at Lehigh. So they are different schools with different orientations in general. I’m sure both provide a solid engineering education but you can see they have totally different strengths.</p>
<p>The idea that UR engineering is “bad” makes no sense because you can’t have graduate engineering being so much better. They use the same faculty and many of the same resources. </p>
<p>If you look, for example, at income earned from technology, UR is something like 7th. That means they develop successful technology. </p>
<p>BTW, it took me less than 10 minutes to research this. If you spend your time reading meaningless ranking stuff, then you miss the actual materials out there. Lehigh is clearly more of an “engineering school” - after all they were “the Engineers” in sports for decades - and you can see that from the numbers of engineering majors: 1655 versus 809 at UR. 809 is not a small number but 1655 is 1/3 of all Lehigh undergrads.</p>
<p>But if you look at faculty, UR has nearly as many total and nearly as many full professors: 89 to 112 and 55 to 66. UR also has more non-tenure track teaching personnel (whatever that is) 35 to 12. And slightly more research personnel. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what all this means - and the point is no one knows and ranking pretend to rank stuff that isn’t important. UR has a history of not doing much for rankings. Maybe that is at play. I don’t know, but I can see that UR has more resources allocated to fewer engineering students and that Lehigh is stronger in different areas.</p>
<p>Great post Lergnom… briangt or JG120292 - if you would like to speak with someone from the department let me know in a PM and I can put you in touch with a professor or current student</p>
<p>Thank you so much! I think I’m leaning towards Rochester (merit scholarship being the deciding factor) but my mom seems convinced that Lehigh’s engineering program is superior. I’ll be attending SOC on April 23rd so I think I’ll ask around then :)</p>
<p>You need to think about what kind of engineering, then look at the strengths of each and also look at the philosophy of the department. It would be good to talk to professors.</p>
<p>If there’s merit aid, unless your finances don’t matter, UR is a no brainer better choice unless your interests are in areas that Lehigh does noticeably more in. My advice is always: go where you want, where they have your program, where you can afford. </p>
<p>BTW, not aimed at you, but I continue to be disgusted by the lack of publicity in disciplines like engineering about the many research resources available to high school students. This material should be first on every list and yet almost no one knows about it. </p>
<p>Also btw, you can’t wholly trust even the ASEE figures because schools - eg, USC - have been caught listing more faculty than really exists (as in including emeritus faculty).</p>