<p>Robert, hopefully I get to meet you next year!</p>
<p>US News Undergrad Engineering Rankings 2010</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/981759-us-news-undergrad-engineering-rankings-2011-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/981759-us-news-undergrad-engineering-rankings-2011-a.html</a></p>
<p>(not 2011, 2010 actually)</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
11 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 4.1
University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX 4.1
13 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 3.9
Northwestern University Evanston, IL 3.9
University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 3.9
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 3.9
17 Pennsylvania State University–University Park University Park, PA 3.8
Texas A&M University–College Station College Station, TX 3.8
19 Rice University Houston, TX 3.7
University of California–Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 3.7
University of Maryland–College Park College Park, MD 3.7
22 Duke University Durham, NC 3.6
University of California–San Diego La Jolla, CA 3.6
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN 3.6
University of Washington Seattle, WA 3.6
26 Columbia University New York, NY 3.5
Harvard University Cambridge, MA 3.5
North Carolina State University–Raleigh Raleigh, NC 3.5
Ohio State University–Columbus Columbus, OH 3.5
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 3.5
University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 3.5
32 University of California–Davis Davis, CA 3.4
University of Colorado–Boulder Boulder, CO 3.4
University of Florida Gainesville, FL 3.4
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 3.4
36 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA 3.3
University of California–Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 3.3
University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 3.3
Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN 3.3
40 Brown University Providence, RI 3.2
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 3.2
Iowa State University Ames, IA 3.2
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 3.2
Yale University New Haven, CT 3.2 </p>
<p>This thread is about E.N.G.I.N.E.E.R.I.N.G.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech: 13th</p>
<p>University of Virginia: 36th</p>
<p>Who would like to disagree with this fact?</p>
<p>Why did it take 122 posts to get to these rankings? Pretty much sums it up.</p>
<p>Like I have said in previous posts, the choice isn’t as obvious as say, MIT/Stanford/Caltech vs. UVA. It is Virginia Tech, which not even a top 10 engineering school. But by the way some Tech students tout about their engineering program vis-a-vis UVA’s, you’d think Tech was a top 5 program. </p>
<p>PS: Check out the engineering graduate rankings. Tech and UVA are many many less spots apart. Tech is #24 and UVA is #39. Why such a drop for Tech? If I were a prospective undergraduate, I’d like to know why…</p>
<p>Give it up, Wahoomb. I’m a loyal Virginia alum, but these rankings are clear. VT kicks Virginia’s butt in undergraduate engineering, just as Virginia kicks VT’s butt in undergraduate business. Two fine schools, each with their own strengths.</p>
<p>Wahoomb: “It is Virginia Tech, which not even a top 10 engineering school.”</p>
<p>Best Undergraduate Engineering Schools
Engineering Specialties (where doctorate is highest degree)</p>
<p>These are for 2011.</p>
<p>Industrial / Manufacturing Ranking- Virginia Tech: 4th</p>
<p>[Industrial</a> / Manufacturing | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-industrial-manufacturing]Industrial”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-industrial-manufacturing)</p>
<p>Engineering Science/Engineering Physics- Virginia Tech: 5th</p>
<p>[Engineering</a> Science/Engineering Physics | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-science-physics]Engineering”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-science-physics)</p>
<p>Environmental / Environmental health Rankings- Virginia Tech: 9th</p>
<p>[Environmental</a> / Environmental health | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-environmental-health]Environmental”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-environmental-health)</p>
<p>The followings are for 2010.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/769210-complete-usnews-2010-undergrad-engineering-rankings-phd-granting-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/769210-complete-usnews-2010-undergrad-engineering-rankings-phd-granting-schools.html</a></p>
<p>Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical- Virginia Tech: 10th</p>
<p>Civil- Virginia Tech: 10th</p>
<p>VT’s Architecture program is obviously top 10 too.</p>
<p>Wahoomb just mentioned about Top 10 so I just looked it up.</p>
<p>Come on, VT is Virginia “Polytechnic Institute” and State University. Do you get it?</p>
<p>The OP asked his/her question on the UVA, VT and Engineering boards but I haven’t heard squat from them since. I think we are just arguing for our pet schools here.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s silly to make decisions based upon the rankings of schools. If one school is ranked 10 and another 22 the difference between the two schools may be a result of differences in student surveys, food quality, or alumni giving. The school comparisons are an attempt to quantify subjective differences between schools. It’s an imperfect exercise and may include elements that the potential student is not interested in. Or, the rankings are based upon weighting factors that differ from the student’s desires. For example, how important is on-campus housing? Do you get a + factor for suites while another school doesn’t because the rooms are off a hallway? What if the potential student is planning to live off campus? He/she doesn’t care about the issue anyway. I’m not saying that these particular elements are included in a particular ranking but some attempt to factor in “quality of life”. Some rankings factor in rankings by Deans of other schools many of whom have no direct knowledge of the schools they are ranking.</p>
<p>Rankings aren’t completely useless but you do need to be careful in how much weight you give to them in your decisions.</p>
<p>The decision for the OP, IMO really comes down to:
a. what they intend to study in engineering
b. how confident he/she will stay in engineering
c. what they intend to do with their engineering knowledge after graduation.
d. how well he/she likes each campus and how well he/she feels they will fit in with others.</p>
<p>The answer to d is the most important and could trump the decisions made in a-c. For a, based upon general engineering reputation, number and breadth of recruiters VT has an advantage. UVA may have an advantage if the major is bio engineering. For b, UVA has a clear advantage in general reputation if the student believes there is a fair chance that he/she may, in fact, be a pre-business major. If the OP wants to work as an engineer rather than on wall street/law etc then VT has the advantage IMO.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at this thread for a while and saw it’s lacking some anecdotal evidence.</p>
<p>@OP: I am a CS major at UVA and I was offered 3 internships this summer (in CS) in the NoVA area, and I’m not even a Rodman Scholar or anything like that. I was thinking about VT engineering too but I just didn’t like the physical environment/distance from home there. Also the typical UVA engineering student is more non-preppy (in CS/EE/CPE at least) than the typical arts and sciences/comm student.</p>
<p>UVA offers a more interesting student body and college traditions.</p>
<p>Did you also see that Harvard, UPenn, Yale and Duke have lower ranked undergrad programs than VT…does that mean you’d turn down those schools to go to VT if offered, just based on rankings? There is such a political dance and show going on with higher ed. rankings, it is hard to take them seriously.</p>
<p>Still, I somewhat agree with Wahoomb that grad school strength (perhaps not ranking) should be considered, since it will be more indicative of the strength of the faculty and research going on at that institution. More research = more opportunities for student experiences = better for employment/grad school opportunities…and isn’t that the main goal in the first place?</p>
<p>UVA is a fine institution and is worthy of praise, but UVA affiliates shouldn’t get into debates that involve UVA’s graduate programs. UVA is extremely weak when you compare it’s a graduate programs to its peers - especially when you look at Berkeley, Michigan, and even Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Name of the school isn’t everything. Strength of the program signals respect in that field. Respect in a field is what leads to more connections, more employment opportunities, and a better chance of you choosing your first job and not your first job choosing you.</p>
<p>Let’s be real here, the only industries where brand name means everything are finance and consulting - and even then its only for select number of employers. Even then, the largest employer of UVA graduates hire at VT as well. Just looked at their hiring reports. It’s not like McKinsey, Bain, and Goldman Sachs are hiring UVA engineers by the boat load.</p>
<p>If someone picks college A over B simply because of rankings in some magazine then I believe you are making a huge mistake (my opinion only). Go to the school that feels right and will be a place you can see yourself being successful. D went to UVA vice VT because she thought it was a better fit. She liked VT very much, just liked UVA slightly more.</p>
<p>Having worked in an industry with engineers from all over the country for thirty years, I have worked with both UVA and VT graduates and both are excellent. As a side note the rankings only include schools with Doctorates. Excellent schools like the Naval Academy and West Point, both with excellent engineering programs do not even show up on the list.</p>