<p>Nanotechnology is very interdisciplinary. There are people in MSE working on it, people in EE working on it, people in ChemE working on it, people in MechE working on it… all sorts of people really. It is one small part of all of those fields that makes up the whole science.</p>
<p>Also, since USNWR doesn’t rank schools on their applied science programs in nanotechnology, why would you expect one single program to rocket Rice up to the top? By USNWR own way of thinking (which is admittedly flawed), Rice’s strength in nanotechnology must not be enough to make up for what it perceives as other areas that aren’t top 20 caliber. The real question here is: who cares? It is a great school and USNWR rankings do not dictate the quality of an education.</p>