What do the engineering rankings actually measure?

[Anonymous]

I am trying to guess at a good school for a future engineer (if it matters, soph with great grades and good test taking ability but not specific engineering interest beyond in the topic) and look at the rankings from USNWR, then the claims from the universities themselves...and it seems like there are things in tension.
There are juggernaut schools that have lots of graduates and serious research ....but then also big weedout classes.
There are high-SAT small cohort schools that seem to teach and care for the student . . . but might be kind of bare bones/generalist.
And there are more things in tension like this.

What about the rankings makes sense? Is it professors' views of the productivity of the institutions? The engineers that came from given schools? The specific teaching quality in the disciplines? How "hard" the professors make it or "how well" they teach or whether you have every new toy to try out?

Appreciate any thoughts or corrections to my confused ranting here....

[Anonymous]

It’s sort of a mess of the engineering schools. Aside from the top fancy names like MIT, I think the distinctions are more in the approach and the social environment so a school ranked 50 might be much better for your kid than one ranked 30. I think outside the top 5 or maybe 10, you look at all that stuff that isn’t reflected in the rankings and you look at your kid.

[Anonymous]

No one uses US News for engineering rankings.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, don't use rankings. Make your own set of criteria that are important for your DC and evaluate against that. The manner is which programs are run at colleges can vary quite a bit. Some require applying to a specific engineering discipline up front, others to the school of engineering, and others to the college generally. At some, it's easier to change engineering disciplines than at others.

If your DC is not certain about engineering as a course of study, you will want to consider the colleges' other areas of study. Some schools great for engineering may be thin in other offerings as they skew more technical.

Look for ABET accreditation to be on the safe side, though there are exceptions. MIT has some disciplines that are not ABET accredited (Mechanical Engineering comes to mind) because they find it limiting. No one is going to question an MIT mechanical engineering graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one uses US News for engineering rankings.

Of course they do. All the time, in fact.

[Anonymous]

Look at the outcomes. UIUC and Georgia Tech have better outcomes than many T20 schools. UMD CS also has particularly good outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one uses US News for engineering rankings.

Of course they do. All the time, in fact.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the outcomes. UIUC and Georgia Tech have better outcomes than many T20 schools. UMD CS also has particularly good outcome.

Uh, we are talking about the USNWR rankings of undergraduate business programs where GT does rank #3 and UIUC ranks #5 https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate

[Anonymous]

As a hiring manager, I do not care much about rankings. Top few might be better, but my experience is that what really matters for on the job performance -- so what I mostly care about when hiring -- are:

Which specific degree?
Which specialty within that degree?
Did the student take the rigorous upper-level in-major courses?
What concrete skills do they bring?
If they did a senior project, what was it?

ABET sets a high floor. In my experience, almost all engineering programs are rigorous. No one accidentally gets an engineering degree. It takes a lot of hard work, even for the bright capable students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a hiring manager, I do not care much about rankings. Top few might be better, but my experience is that what really matters for on the job performance -- so what I mostly care about when hiring -- are:

Which specific degree?
Which specialty within that degree?
Did the student take the rigorous upper-level in-major courses?
What concrete skills do they bring?
If they did a senior project, what was it?

ABET sets a high floor. In my experience, almost all engineering programs are rigorous. No one accidentally gets an engineering degree. It takes a lot of hard work, even for the bright capable students.

C'mon now. If you work for a major engineering recruiter and I mean a real player, you know darn well there are certain schools that are targeted for recruiting because they produce the best. If you work in the field, you already know this and the schools that are targeted. If you work for just a company that hires engineers and not a real player, then this might not make sense to you. I get that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one uses US News for engineering rankings.

People in this field know where the top engineering prospects graduate from. This is not a secret for those that do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a hiring manager, I do not care much about rankings. Top few might be better, but my experience is that what really matters for on the job performance -- so what I mostly care about when hiring -- are:

Which specific degree?
Which specialty within that degree?
Did the student take the rigorous upper-level in-major courses?
What concrete skills do they bring?
If they did a senior project, what was it?

ABET sets a high floor. In my experience, almost all engineering programs are rigorous. No one accidentally gets an engineering degree. It takes a lot of hard work, even for the bright capable students.

C'mon now. If you work for a major engineering recruiter and I mean a real player, you know darn well there are certain schools that are targeted for recruiting because they produce the best. If you work in the field, you already know this and the schools that are targeted. If you work for just a company that hires engineers and not a real player, then this might not make sense to you. I get that.

I’m wondering which schools those are? If you know?
I have a friend that is director of r & d at a major manufacturer that you have definitely heard of, and another that is head of a lab at a major pharma company. Both engineers that do hiring. They basically were like PP and said they care less about the school and more about what the student did at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a hiring manager, I do not care much about rankings. Top few might be better, but my experience is that what really matters for on the job performance -- so what I mostly care about when hiring -- are:

Which specific degree?
Which specialty within that degree?
Did the student take the rigorous upper-level in-major courses?
What concrete skills do they bring?
If they did a senior project, what was it?

ABET sets a high floor. In my experience, almost all engineering programs are rigorous. No one accidentally gets an engineering degree. It takes a lot of hard work, even for the bright capable students.

C'mon now. If you work for a major engineering recruiter and I mean a real player, you know darn well there are certain schools that are targeted for recruiting because they produce the best. If you work in the field, you already know this and the schools that are targeted. If you work for just a company that hires engineers and not a real player, then this might not make sense to you. I get that.

I’m wondering which schools those are? If you know?
I have a friend that is director of r & d at a major manufacturer that you have definitely heard of, and another that is head of a lab at a major pharma company. Both engineers that do hiring. They basically were like PP and said they care less about the school and more about what the student did at the school.

Seriously? This is not hard to figure out. If you need to be told, then I'm suspecting you are just trolling. Do your research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a hiring manager, I do not care much about rankings. Top few might be better, but my experience is that what really matters for on the job performance -- so what I mostly care about when hiring -- are:

Which specific degree?
Which specialty within that degree?
Did the student take the rigorous upper-level in-major courses?
What concrete skills do they bring?
If they did a senior project, what was it?

ABET sets a high floor. In my experience, almost all engineering programs are rigorous. No one accidentally gets an engineering degree. It takes a lot of hard work, even for the bright capable students.

C'mon now. If you work for a major engineering recruiter and I mean a real player, you know darn well there are certain schools that are targeted for recruiting because they produce the best. If you work in the field, you already know this and the schools that are targeted. If you work for just a company that hires engineers and not a real player, then this might not make sense to you. I get that.

Not our experience in the tech industry, partly because the USNWR engineering rankings prioritize several inputs that just do not correlate closely with quality.

MIT or Caltech better sure, but after the first few, the rankings do not correlate as well as degree, specialty, and taking the rigorous electives. E&M fields will be hard everywhere. Compilers will be hard everywhere. Those rigorous courses correlate much more strongly.

[Anonymous]

So / for the guy who says it’s not a secret and people in the field know . . . Can you let us in on things, especially 10-20 schools below the Caltechs and MITs?