specific field rank or total rank?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>hello
i am an international student in mechanical engineering and i'm studying my MSc,i want to apply to US universities for Phd in mechanical engineering,i was looking at US News rankings and Topuniversites.com rankings,in US News ranking there are 2 rankings for universities one for a specific field and the other for ranking of university in technology and egineering,in Topuniversities.com there is a total ranking of university in the world and its' rank in technology,
for example for Gtech we have:
US News:mechanical=4,engineering=4
Topuniversities.com:world rank=83,technology=8</p>

<p>and for Duke university:
US News:mechanical=26,engineering=35
Topuniversities.com:world rank=13,technology=111</p>

<p>my question is:i am confused i should stick to better world ranking and apply for example to Duke university or i should stick to better mechanical engineering ranking and go for Gtech?
the point is i love mechanical engineering and i really like to go to somewhere that has better programs and better future for me in mechanical engineering and i do not know these rankings could be trusted or not? i mean if it is said by US News that Gtech is better than Duke in mechanical engineering,is this true and for real,and Gtech has really better programs?
thanks in advance</p>

2

<p>For a PhD go with specific field rank</p>

<p>Best Engineering Schools Specialty Rankings: Mechanical
Ranked in 2009
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 4.9
2 Stanford University Stanford, CA 4.8
3 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA 4.7
4 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 4.6
5 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI 4.5
6 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 4.4
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL 4.4
8 Purdue University–West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN 4.2
9 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 4.1
10 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 4.0
11 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 3.9
Northwestern University (McCormick) Evanston, IL 3.9
University of California–Los Angeles (Samueli) Los Angeles, CA 3.9
University of Texas–Austin (Cockrell) Austin, TX 3.9
15 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN 3.8
University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 3.8
17 Pennsylvania State University–University Park University Park, PA 3.7
Texas A&M University–College Station (Look) College Station, TX 3.7
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 3.7
20 Johns Hopkins University (Whiting) Baltimore, MD 3.6
University of Maryland–College Park (Clark) College Park, MD 3.6
22 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 3.5
Ohio State University Columbus, OH 3.5
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 3.5
University of California–San Diego (Jacobs) La Jolla, CA 3.5
26 Duke University (Pratt) Durham, NC 3.4
27 Rice University (Brown) Houston, TX 3.3
University of California–Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 3.3
University of Florida Gainesville, FL 3.3
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 3.3
University of Southern California (Viterbi) Los Angeles, CA 3.3
32 University of California–Davis Davis, CA 3.2
University of California–Irvine (Samueli) Irvine, CA 3.2
University of Colorado–Boulder Boulder, CO 3.2
University of Washington Seattle, WA 3.2
36 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 3.1
Columbia University (Fu Foundation) New York, NY 3.1
Iowa State University Ames, IA 3.1
Yale University New Haven, CT 3.1
40 Arizona State University (Fulton) Tempe, AZ 3.0
Lehigh University (Rossin) Bethlehem, PA 3.0
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 3.0
North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 3.0
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick Piscataway, NJ 3.0
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 3.0
University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 3.0
Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN 3.0</p>