<p>Use rankings as a datapoint… but take the exact rank with a grain of salt. It’s helpful to watch for themes, to see which college factors pop up on various lists.</p>
<p>Example - DS is at Franklin Olin College of Engineering (a teeny school, niche fit). It’s very new, “the best little school you never heard of”. It popped up favorably on several engineering college ranking lists.</p>
<p>Useful but not definitive. </p>
<p>The sources Forbes draws from are really flaky. So some schools go from #8 to #47 to #21 over a three year span, maybe because a few people spammed RateMyProf or something.</p>
<p>About that link at #18:</p>
<p>Top 50 List: </p>
<p>Columbia University: #46</p>
<p>orly</p>
<p>I’ve yet to find anything very meaningful for undergraduate engineering. USNWR’s methodology for engineering is solely based on institutional reputation. it also oddly separates PhD granting schools from the rest. Why wold that matter if you want to rank an undergraduate program?</p>
<p>Engineering also skews other rankings like ROI and schools that produce PhDs.</p>
<p>Once non-ABET programs have been excluded, any ideas on how to rank the rest?</p>