Electronics News and Comment

Best Engineering Colleges 2009

MIT and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology grabbed the top spots in U.S. News & World Report’s annual engineering school rankings, released earlier this month.

U.S. News, which publishes the rankings annually, named MIT to the top spot among schools that offer a doctorate in engineering. Rose-Hulman of Indiana took honors in a category that includes schools at the bachelors and masters degree level. The rankings are based solely on a peer survey of deans and senior faculty at other engineering schools.

Other schools in the “doctorate top ten” included (in order): Stanford and University of California-Berkeley (tied for second); Cal Tech, Georgia Tech and the University of Illinois (tied for fourth); the University of Michigan; Cornell; Carnegie Mellon and Purdue.

Colleges rounding out the “bachelors-masters top ten” included: Harvey Mudd; Cooper Union; Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo; U.S. Military Academy; Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; U.S. Naval Academy; Bucknell; U.S. Air Force Academy; and Villanova. Franklin W. Olin’s appearance on the list is considered an achievement because the school is less than a decade old.

Earlier this year, Design News examined the small engineering school experience in an article that profiles Rose-Hulman, Harvey-Mudd and Franklin Olin.

Historic Drop in Highway Fatalities

Electronic safety systems may be showing their value. According to new statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the number of people who died on the nation’s roads last year reached historically low levels. Overall traffic fatalities fell to 41,059, the lowest level since 1994. Also, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles dropped to 1.37, the lowest fatality rate on record.

            An electronic stability control mandate, set to start on September 1^st, is expected to reduce annual fatalities by an additional 6,000 to 9,000 per year. Smart highways, which are farther out in the future, are expected to reduce annual fatalities to as few as 10,000 per year.    

Big Engineering Schools Get Poor Marks

Engineering colleges fared poorly again in an annual survey released this week in The Princeton Review’s annual edition of “The Best 368 Colleges.”

Top technical schools ranging from Cal Tech to Georgia Tech to Illinois Institute of Technology popped up on lists involving least happy students and worst professors. While the big-name schools dominated those areas, however, the news was good for two small engineering colleges that appeared on lists of happy students and best professors.

            Most notable were the lists titled “Least Happy Students” and “Professors Get the Worst Marks.” The rankings, which are based on interviews with 120,000 students at 368 schools, placed five engineering schools on the least happy list. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy was the worst, with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) all landing in the worst ten. Under “Professors Get the Worst Marks,” engineering schools owned the four worst spots: Stevens Institute of Technology fared worst, followed, in order, by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Cal Tech, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. IIT, Georgia Tech, and Rensselaer Polytechnic also landed in the bottom ten.

            On the flip side, Franklin Olin College of Engineering and Harvey Mudd landed in the top ten in the category called “Professors Get High Marks.” Franklin Olin also finished fifth in the happiest students category.

            Engineering experts have argued in the past that engineering colleges will always do poorly on such lists because of the intensity and number of study hours required by engineering curriculums. This year’s list supported that argument: In a category titled “Students Study the Most,” engineering schools grabbed four of the top five spots (MIT, Franklin Olin, Cal Tech, Harvey Mudd).

No engineering schools appeared on a list titled, “Students Study the Least.”