<p>Well, actually, I’m not sure about that. I think that ranking correlates fairly weakly with difficulty. Much stronger predictors exist.</p>
<p>Let’s take the specific case of Stanford engineering. Nobody disputes that Stanford is one of the premier engineering schools in the world. On the other hand, Stanford engineering is notably relaxed and stress-free, at least relative to other engineering programs. In fact, I would argue that Stanford engineering is probably * easier * than many other engineering programs that are ranked lower. In particular, we can use the example of Caltech. Caltech engineering is ranked lower than Stanford engineering, but I think there would be little dispute (even from Stanford people) that Caltech engineering is almost certainly harder. In other words, somebody who flunks out of Caltech engineering could probably have graduated from Stanford engineering. Probably only with mediocre grades, but at least he would have graduated. </p>
<p>Hence, I think if you are really looking for a strong predictor of difficulty, you have to look at the culture of the school. Stanford has built a strong reputation for having a relaxed environment, high quality of life, excellent student satisfaction, and so forth. Caltech, on the other hand, is a meatgrinder. And they’re quite explicit about that. You choose Caltech, and not only will you be working like a dog, but you * still * might flunk out.</p>