Hi everyone,
I have been reading this board long enough to know about the issues behind the engineering UG rankings but what gave me pause for concern is that the University of Rochester is that in 2008 it was ranked 30th and now it has dropped down to 70th.
This school is one of my DD’s top choices, and aside from the usual caveats when selecting a school, should this drop give me pause for concern.
As always your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Those rankings are very subjective and are not always based upon factors that matter to all individuals. As long as the program is ABET accredited, then getting a good enough GPA in the program will enable a student to find an engineering job somewhere.
I know ABET accreditation is of utmost important. It is just interesting that a fine institution such as Rochester can have it’s reputation drop like that. If it is meaningless it is meaningless.
I think they’re largely worthless because the methodology is literally unidimensional. It speaks nothing about what the UG experience is like. Two similarly ranked schools can be VASTLY different in style and therefore outcome, depending on the fit. With that said, USNWR currently has U of R tied for 39th.
The overall rank is high at 33 no doubt. I guses when I see the engineering ranking drop quite a lot and at least one poster questioned the rigor of the program I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask my original question.
Oh, I made a mistake anyway. The 39 is for the graduate program. Maybe some NE engineers can comment.
@smokinact, I found a CC link that had them at #76 in 2008 and #62 in 2000. Where did you get your info saying they were 30th in '08?
A search on CC. Maybe it was incorrect.
My guess, and it’s just a guess since it’s CC data, is that the rankings I posted are correct. The reason I say that is because the methodology absolutely caters to self perpetuation. Major moves like that are extremely uncommon UNLESS, as was the case with WPI, they change the classification of the school from regional to national. I couldn’t find a link to the USNWR archived data in my cursory search.
I think the bottom line is…it doesn’t matter. If she likes it, she’ll do well. One of my patients who managed one of the most famous NASA projects of all time gave me some interesting input. I’ll paraphrase, but in essence he said he worked with engineers from all over the world and there was no correlation between where they went to school and how effective they were. What was, was their curiosity and problem solving drive. His open words exactly “Let me give you a little secret. It doesn’t matter where your son goes to college.”
Wish her luck.