<p>What does ranking really represent? Does it represent the prestige, rigors of curriculum, reseach expenditure, competitiveness, reputation, quality of education, environment, quality of faculty, awards of recognition??... etc..</p>
<p>yes.
and it also represents the interest of the publication.
the USNews rankings are a fairly good representation of the quality of the institution but always always take it with a grain of salt. Dont assume that #23 is heads above #13. The differences are often minute.</p>
<p>so where could i find a ranking that is only based on quality of education and rigors of curriculum, taking other factors aside?</p>
<p>US News is probably the best rankings for undergrad out there right now.</p>
<p>yes but i doubt it, since for engineering it ranks georgia tech and purdue higher than harvard, princeton, columbia. does this mean that the ivies arent as good as them in engineering??</p>
<p>whatever the publication wants...which is why you should be cautious of rankings, and not think that one school is better for you because it's ranked higher.</p>
<p>
well said...for me, as long as a school has made the list, that's good enough for me.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, yes. The ivies are not as good in "pure" engineering. Just ask the recruiters.</p>
<p>The engineering deans and department heads also agree as indicated in the peer assessment scores.</p>
<p>Are the ivies good in engineering? It depends on which Ivy you are talking about. You can almost rank the Ivies in engineering by turning the overall prestige ranking upside-down, except for Princeton, which is very strong in engineering and high in overall prestige among Ivies. </p>
<p>I think Cornell is one of the two best undergraduate programs for engineering in the country, along with Stanford, based on a combination of teaching, faculty contact, resources, academic rigor, campus climate. Princeton is smaller but also excellent. Then Columbia. Then Penn. Brown is strong in biomedical, so it depends also on which field of engineering. Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth have some very bright engineering students but the academic programs there are bare-bones minimal.</p>
<p>i plan to double major in physics/electrical engineering. im thinking of applying for transfer to:
uc-berkeley, cornell, rice, umich</p>
<p>i am not sure whether i will apply to northwestern or carnegie mellon..... any suggestions? how does my list look so far?</p>
<p>Cornell has the #1 engineering physics program in the country according to US News.</p>
<p>im not interested in engineering physics, i am interested in double major EE/physics</p>
<p>
[quote]
im not interested in engineering physics, i am interested in double major EE/physics
[/quote]
umm...<em>raises eyebrow</em></p>
<p>I wonder what college at Cornell you will be applying to, then. The College of Engineering, where the Electrical Engineering is housed? Or the College of Arts & Sciences, home to the (non-engineering) Physics major?</p>
<p>I am not sure, maybe i will e-mail the university and ask them.</p>
<p>Anyway so should i apply to northwestern or carnegie mellon too?? any response?</p>
<p>I don't think such a qualitative variable like education can be ranked. That's why I like the Fiske Guide, where colleges are not so much ranked as they are described and explored.</p>
<p>
[quote]
yes but i doubt it, since for engineering it ranks georgia tech and purdue higher than harvard, princeton, columbia. does this mean that the ivies arent as good as them in engineering??
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Remember, they aren't ranking the school overall, if they were, Harvard, Princeton, and Colubmia would be far ahead of GATech and Purdue. But in engineering, since, Purdue and GATech are more engineering oriented, they might actually have a legitimate leg-up in the engineering ranking. Those ivies, while awesome schools, are not necessarily the best at everything, in this case engineering. You'll notice that Cornell probably ranks pretty high in engineering, however.</p>