RML

^ yeah, I know Harvard isn't strong for engineering. But after my nephew toured me around their engineering dept, I was all impressed. It's a small department at Harvard with limited resources, but it's a great place to do engineering for undergrad. It's just a personal thing, however.

Alex, for some weird reason, I wasn't all that impressed with Stanford's engineering after visiting. I thought it was overrated and Georgia Tech's was underrated.

Alexandre

How can GT be underrated, it is ranked #4 or #5 in the nation in Engineering! LOL! I agree that it is underappreciated on CC, although I don't think GT offers the best experience for undergrads. In terms of academic offerings and quality, you aren't going to beat GT, but in terms of quality of life and environment, there are better options.

RML

Yes Alex, on CC. I've observed that there's very little mention of GT on this forum.

DunninLA

only a couple of mentions for Harvey Mudd.

That is odd to me in that Mudd students are the second highest SAT scorers after only Caltech. And being essentially co-located with Pomona College and Claremont McKenna, non-engineering courses of the highest caliber are plentifully available (in contrast to Caltech). I have read that it's breadth of course offerings is limited due to its very small size, but still I would have expected to see it listed here more than it has been.

DunninLA

Alexandre -- re Georgia Tech -- I think there is a palpable anti-southern bias in most parts of the country. I have noticed that a british accent is associated with intelligence, and a southern accent with ignorance. Some companies go so far as to hire an actor to record their voicemail message in a British accent. Some TV commercials to the same. Where do these biases come from? THAT would be an interesting discussion.

These stereotypes are very slow to die.

datalook

#1 Stanford
#2 MIT
#2 Berkeley
#4 Caltech
...................

datalook

1) MIT (110)
2) Stanford (90)
3) Berkeley (74)
4) UT-Austin (48)
5) Caltech (29)
6) UIUC (28)
7) Georgia Tech (26)

8) Princeton (23)
8) Cornell (23)

10) CMU (22)
10) Michigan (22)
10) USC (22)
10) UC-SB (22)

14) UC-SD (20)

15) Wisconsin (19)
15) UCLA (19)
15) Harvard (19)

Members By Parent Institution

gthopeful

I'm sure it's partly that, but it would be pretty hard to say that Emory doesn't get a lot of attention on CC. Funny little anecdote: Back when the academic year had just started, I was riding on the trolley that goes between the rail station and campus and this gal who was from California was on it and was seeing campus for (apparently) the first time. The trolley goes by the fraternity/sorority area, which contains a few blocks of faux antebellum architecture, and as we're going by she yells out "OH MY GOD IT'S LIKE I'M ON A PLANTATION". Oy...

datalook

I think Stanford engineering school is under-rated, not over-rated. It should be ranked #1, tied with MIT, if not ahead of MIT.

One example is Stanford's industrial engineering department (including management science, operations research). In 2010 US-NEWS ranking, Stanford is #5, tied with Northwestern and Penn State, behind Georgia Tech, Berkeley, Michigan, and Virginia Tech. But historically, Stanford faculty and graduates have been dominating the research in this field. Stanford is #1 in winning both Lanchester prize and John Von Neuman theory prize, far exceeding any other university. As I know, these 2 prizes are the highest honor in this field.

Link: Frederick W. Lanchester Prize / INFORMS Prizes & Awards / Recognize Excellence / IOL Home - INFORMS.org

John von Neumann Theory Prize / INFORMS Prizes & Awards / Recognize Excellence / IOL Home - INFORMS.org

In Computer science and environment engineering, Stanford has been #1 for decades. In EE and mechanical engineering, Stanford is #1 or #2 by US-News. But it is #1 by National Research Council. If we talk about the contributions to milestone level technology advancement (such as internet, robotics, GPS, Laser, genetic engineering), Stanford has been the leader for several decades. Stanford is the leader in Silicon Valley, which is the world's technology locomotive.

Biomedical/bioengineering is Stanford's new department, relatively weak. But it has been improving its ranking and became #10 in 2010. Several faculty members of this department have won the prestigious NIH pioneer award. I would predict that within 10 years, Stanford will very likely become a top 3 in this field, if not #1.

RML

datalook, thanks for your post. Very informative indeed. I have no issues about Stanford being number one. After all, it truly is a top school not just for engineering but for almost all major programs.

leeznon

T-e-x-a-s!

k&s

While that very well may be true, it's not like the New Yawk/Brooklyn or Boston accents are used to denote intelligence or class either.

As for the "Southern accent", there are actually a number of different ones and the genteel Southern accent has been used to denote class.

But yeah, there probably is a bias against schools not located in the NE.

bboyryayzhao

Have you ever heard about rose-hulman?

cheezwhiz

Rose Hulman-US News ranks them as Number 1 for 10 years for engineering schools without a PHD.

I would say they are one of the best in the US for engineering.