<p>What are definitions of Tier I, II, III, and IV schools for engineering?</p>
<p>What are examples of the different tiers, ie, what schools would fit each category?</p>
<p>[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]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/rankings)</p>
<p>Generally, most people talk about the tiers in multiples of 25 for engineering (50 for overall undergraduate rankings because they rank many more schools for that). </p>
<p>Within Tier I, most people make a distinction between Top 10 and 11-25.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, GP. Still not getting what the different tiers are. Is Tier I the top ten on this list, then Tier II is the next 25?</p>
<p>I’m really looking for something like:</p>
<p>Tier I, ACT above 32, SAT above 2200, ex. XYZ College.</p>
<p>This is just an example, pulling numbers out of the air. </p>
<p>But this is the kind of listing I’m looking for.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>There isn’t something definitive that defines each tier. It’s just something general. One person’s Tier I school might be another person’s Tier II school.</p>
<p>And besides, while most people would make the cut-off 10, or 25, or some other round number, just because that would put a school in a different ‘tier’ wouldn’t make it any better than one in a lower ‘tier.’ While the #10 school is probably better than the number #50 school, the #51 school isn’t really any worse than #50, despite being in different ‘tiers.’</p>
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<p>It would be much simpler if the schools got together, ranked each other, then set each other’s ACT/SAT score based on rank. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. </p>
<p>Harvard’s program is 2nd tier (and that’s not an excuse for the Harvard people to come on here and clarify the size of their program, recent faculty acquisitions, and improving rank), but it has a much higher SAT requirement than, say, Georgia Tech which is a Top 10 school.</p>
<p>“Harvard’s program is 2nd tier (and that’s not an excuse for the Harvard people to come on here and clarify the size of their program, recent faculty acquisitions, and improving rank), but it has a much higher SAT requirement than, say, Georgia Tech which is a Top 10 school.”</p>
<p>i agree but you’d still have a lot more wide-open career opportunities being a harvard engineering grad than a Gtech engineering grad… it’d probably be a wash for engineering jobs…gtech’s program reputation vs harvard’s wow factor…but once you get out of the engineering field (which is not rare, for example, about 25% of Michigan engineering graduates will never practice anything engineering related after they graduate, and it’s probably more towards 50% for Harvard), like consulting, banking, trading, harvard engineering will still own any engineering school, however top tier they are.</p>
<p>While I agree with you there’s the wow factor and the opportunities outside of engineering available to Harvard grads, I disagree that the opportunities are a wash for engineering. Harvard doesn’t even have two of the major mainstream engineering departments (chemical and civil).</p>
<p>… this tier stuff is silly, really. Come on.</p>
<p>The USNWR has its own system of “tiers” which would put nearly all 4-year state and good private schools in the 1st tier.</p>
<p>Using the USNWR to come up with some ephemeral and phantasmagorical tier system based on some numerologically-couched argument that schools are quantitatively different in multiples of 25 (except the 1st 25, where the 1st 10 are special) is superstitious, unreasonable, and arrogant.</p>
<p>The USNWR rankings have dubious value when taken as is; when you misuse them to magic into existence a sort of class-hierarchy-for-universities, you’re missing the point: that most universities do interesting research and house specialists whose knowledge is second to none in their field, and students need only apply themselves anywhere to get as much as they are capable of getting out of their experience.</p>
<p>Show me one person who thinks that they could go to any of the major public or private universities anywhere and be able to learn everything about a topic of interest in a 4-year undergraduate curriculum, and I’ll show you somebody upon whom an education has been - or should not - be wasted.</p>
<p>Just wanted to clarify my question more.</p>
<p>I could care less about prestige, rankings, that sort of stuff.</p>
<p>As senior year approaches, I’ve got to be realistic about what schools my child could actually get into. I know there are more things that go into acceptance than test scores, GPA, but I also know that there are guidelines that schools use as they’re sifting through all these applications that will be coming their way.</p>
<p>Should you even bother applying to a school that only accepts ACTs or SATs above what you achieved?</p>
<p>Why get your child’s hopes up that they could go to their dream school, when based on the data, there’s no way they’d get past that first review of applications?</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I’m a trained scientist, and therefore, like to have things in black and white, although I know there are intangibles such as ECs, essays, interviews, etc.</p>
<p>I’m just really trying to get a framework to work within here.</p>
<p>So please, this is not about prestige, bragging rights, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for any help y’all can give.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I think the only definite way to know whether your child will get into his dream school is to apply and see what happens. They call that an experiment in the biz.</p>
<p>I think the standard advice is to apply to a portfolio of schools, including reach, level, and safety schools, each of which the student would be happy to attend.</p>
<p>I think ~6 schools would be perfect, and ~3 would be easy to do. If you can’t afford the application fee, then you might want to consider cost rather than how good the school is. If you don’t have the will do fill out the applications, you should evaluate whether or not you’d do well in a school you don’t have the will to apply to.</p>
<p>Thanks, Auburn. Didn’t mean to sound lazy. Again, we are just trying to get some guidance.</p>
<p>As you say, apply to about six schools. Well, what if four out of those six schools are schools you have no chance of getting into? And your two “safeties” are schools you have no intention of going to. </p>
<p>There are well-known top tier schools like the ivies and Rice and Duke and Hopkins, but what are the lesser known selective schools?</p>
<p>I guess that may be the better word than tier. Selective. As in, only take students with ACT or SAT over a certain score, top 10 percent class rank. That’s where I’m trying to get guidance. </p>
<p>Should I maybe call this a chance thread? Okay, here goes.</p>
<p>ACT of 31, both times. SAT Math of 680/690. SAT CR of 690/690. SAT Writing of
730/660. Possibly top 15 percent of class, not in top 10, but no lower than top 20.
White male. </p>
<p>Since most schools require you to apply to an engineering program specifically, what schools, just looking at the numbers, would he have a shot at?</p>
<p>Thanks for any help, guys. Sorry I was so inarticulate previously, but this is our first and only child and new to the process.</p>