I am looking at the website http://physics.illinois.edu/undergrad/ and it says “The undergraduate program in engineering physics at Illinois is currently ranked #2 in the country. Our program at Illinois was rated higher in 2013 than undergraduate physics programs at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkeley by U.S. News and World Report.”
First of all, what does engineering physics have to do with physics? To what degree does the engineering physics ranking for undergrad reflect the quality of education in physics at Berkeley, UIUC, MIT, etc.? Second of all, the statement says that the undergraduate program in physics at UIUC was rated higher than the other undergraduate physics programs at institutions such as Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Where are they getting this? What ranking are they referring to? As far as I know, there is no official ranking by USNWR of undergraduate physics programs, so I am not seeing how they are making this assertion.
This is not to bash UIUC - I am sure that they have an excellent physics program. I just came across these statements and wanted to know how true they really are.