What does ranking really represent?

<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>