<p>Does anybody know what criteria they use to determine the points for US News Undergraduate Engineering Rankings?</p>
<p>It’s peer evaluation. These rankings are very subjective not completely indicative of the program quality. However, I would say the top 10 are generally stronger than the top 50 which are stronger than the rest.</p>
<p>Undergraduate rankings don’t matter. It’s not even a proper study because they only take into account schools without graduate programs, but plenty of schools that have graduate programs are just as good if not better.</p>
<p>hadsed, now why would you say something like this which is completely false. Here are the undergraduate engineering rankings by USNWR. Notice any top ranked engineering departments at schools that offer graduate degrees here?</p>
<p>Best Colleges Specialty Rankings: Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs
Ranked in 2010 </p>
<p>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 4.8
2 Stanford University Stanford, CA 4.7
3 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA 4.6
4 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 4.5
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 4.5
6 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL 4.4
7 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI 4.3
8 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 4.2
Cornell University Ithaca, NY 4.2
Purdue University–West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN 4.2</p>
<p>Portfolio, you clearly didn’t understand what hadsed meant. USNWR ranks schools with and without graduate programs separately, even for undergraduate education. It is rather silly.</p>
<p>Undergraduate rankings serve as a rough guide to which schools belong where, but not really much more than that.</p>
<p>bone, maybe if I reposted what hadsed wrote, you might understand why I responded in such manner. Why lie?</p>
<p>from hadsed:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hm, that’s new. Regardless, I have suspicions about this. How exactly do you rank the best undergraduate schools? It’s definitely not solely by rigor, but other than that, what exactly is the measurement? Quality of teaching? I don’t think so. Private small liberal arts colleges are better at teaching, giants of the field who do cutting edge research not so much. The methodology states that it’s 100% peer-review, so I can see how better teaching schools may get knocked down in the face of the research giants.</p>
<p>Also, GT seems to be tied with CalTech… nice.</p>
<p>If you are looking for teaching schools this may be a better list to take a look at. Many of these schools employ professors to teach rather than to Research also each of these are very academically challenging and provide students with the at least the same level of education as any major institution offering doctorates. The downside to these types of schools is lack of research experience (which can be gained from the school still as most profs will have projects they are working on but is harder to find). </p>
<p>Best Colleges Specialty Rankings: Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs</p>
<p>1 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN 4.5
2 Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA 4.4
3 Cooper Union New York, NY 4.1
United States Military Academy West Point, NY 4.1
5 California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA 4.0
United States Air Force Academy USAF Academy, CO 4.0
United States Naval Academy Annapolis, MD 4.0
8 Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Needham, MA 3.9
9 Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 3.7
Villanova University Villanova, PA 3.7</p>
<ol>
<li># Peer-reviewed research papers</li>
<li>amount of funding and correlation undergraduate research opportunity </li>
<li>Faulty backgrounds (education)</li>
<li>Student survey?</li>
<li>Google search rank? HAHAHAHAHa there is one ranking is based on google search. </li>
</ol>
<p>Really?
I don’t know.</p>
<p>@jwxie:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Number of papers don’t mean anything. There are several ways you can have a higher output of papers but not really accomplish anything more. Some areas of research are just tedious that way.</p></li>
<li><p>Not everyone has research as a career goal, infact I’d say most people don’t care about it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Just had to say those things. Also I’m suspicious about your 3 and definitely about your 4, but those are kind of obvious.</p>
<p>Oh # 1 maybe that’s more important in graduate ranking?</p>
<p>Here is the undergraduate ranking… just found out cuz i wasn’t aware of the needless of #1</p>
<p>[Methodology:</a> Undergraduate Ranking Criteria and Weights - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2010/08/17/methodology-undergraduate-ranking-criteria-and-weights-2011.html]Methodology:”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2010/08/17/methodology-undergraduate-ranking-criteria-and-weights-2011.html)</p>
<p>jwxie, your undergraduate ranking methodology that you list is for the overall univeristy rankings by USNWR.</p>
<p>This thread is for USNWR undergraduate engineering department rankings, which are based on the opinions of Engineering School Deans and faculty members.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2010/08/17/methodology-the-best-undergraduate-engineering-programs.html[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2010/08/17/methodology-the-best-undergraduate-engineering-programs.html</a></p>
<p>
Hhahaha interesting. So how are they going to rank them, seriously? Thanks for the clarification though :)</p>
<p>Engineering rankings are peer-review only. It’s quite silly.</p>
<p>The graduate engineering ranking is a bit better…
</p>
<p>So not fair. Now I am only going to take the graduate ranking, plus additional reviews from the CCers. LOL</p>
<p>What exactly does ranking undergraduate schools even mean? Obviously you can go for the brand names and get a good education, that’s why they’re brand name. But you could go to a state school and get a good education as well, other people just might not think so and you’d have to do more to prove that you’ve done what’s required to make your education good (undergraduate research, internships, honors classes, etc.). As the saying goes, you get what you put into it.</p>
<p>i say this year after year…
this ranking is silly.</p>
<p>Wow rocketDA, I figure you must have disappeared for good by now. Haha</p>
<p>“Wow rocketDA, I figure you must have disappeared for good by now. Haha”-boneh3ad</p>
<p>i wish. the last 7 months have been quite trying on me. i just have had bigger fish to fry than the little sardines here on cc. trying to get my own stuff going (company) and applying to a few grad schools this year…</p>
<p>Speaking of Harvey Mudd, I’ve heard them to be one of the best undergraduate schools in the country (hard as hell too). How that isn’t ranked better than GT (a school known for projectile crapping on undergrads for sport) I don’t understand. Another reason why the rankings are just a sham.</p>