If you are going to base your entire argument on engineering, that is fairly one dimensional, and provides a singular lens into the institution. As I keep on tacking back to, it’s the totality of the institution that creates the stoutness of education. Its the reason that a history or english major, at Yale will be recruited at a consulting firm like Boston or Mckinesey, with a starting salary with bonus, in the six figures. Why–because they (consulting firms, IB, VCs, start-ups) know they from top to bottom, in every department and major, the students are highly analytical and incredibly self-driven, and they have the intrinsic ability to learn most any technical topic. This does not happen at a place lioke TAMU…
I never said Yale engineering is the heart of the school or even if its top notch–it isn’t even the top 30 sphere–and maybe one of the weaker departments on campus. But, of the other 50 something majors, it is the standard bearer of excellence, and generations of former students have proved this out. Again, in closing, as I don’t want to have to rehash this redundant argument, they are totally different places, (e.g. one has a student to faculty ratio of 6 to 1, and a cost of instruction over 150K per student–the other–less so). So please enjoy all the amenities and attributes of CS…