August 17, 2007

Purdue's undergrad engineering program among top 10 nationally

Leah Jamieson
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The College of Engineering tied for ninth nationally among doctoral-granting public universities, sharing the slot with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Texas. The top-ranked engineering undergraduate doctoral degree-granting university among all public institutions was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley tied for second.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, in Terre Haute, Ind., and Harvey Mudd College, in Claremont, Calif., were ranked as the best engineering programs among non-doctoral public institutions.

"Because of the hard work of the faculty and staff here, Purdue's College of Engineering continues to hold its place among the country's top institutions," said Leah Jamieson, the John. A Edwardson Dean of Engineering. "The ranking is just one example of our longstanding commitment to undergraduate education."

Two of Purdue's engineering specialties also ranked in the top five. Industrial/manufacturing engineering ranked No. 3 nationally, while agricultural and biological engineering was fourth, along with Texas A&M University and the University of California, Davis.

In the past seven years, the College of Engineering has laid plans to expand its footprint by more than 50 percent. This fall, the $53.2 million, 126,000-square-foot Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering will open as the hub of engineering research and education on campus. The Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering opened in 2004, adding 94,000 square feet of space for that school. Also planned is the new 41,020-square-foot Seng-Liang Wang Hall, a second building for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The School of Mechanical Engineering is planning the new 42,000-square-foot Roger B. Gatewood Mechanical Engineering Wing and a new Ray W. Herrick Laboratories. The faculty size has grown by 55, from 284 to 339, over the past five years.

The College of Engineering is made up of 11 schools and departments: aeronautics and astronautics, agriculture and biological, biomedical, chemical, civil, electrical and computer, engineering education, industrial, materials, mechanical, and nuclear. The college includes the divisions of engineering professional education, construction engineering and management, and environmental and ecological engineering. Also, the college houses programs such as Engineering Projects in Community Service, the Minority Engineering Program, the Women in Engineering Program and the Indiana Space Grant Consortium.

In addition to the more than 6,400 undergraduate students, the college enrolls 2,200 graduate students.  U.S. News & World Report ranked Purdue's graduate engineering program No. 12 in the country last March.

Purdue was ranked highly overall and in other academic areas, as well. Purdue's overall undergraduate program tied with the University of Connecticut and the University of Iowa for No. 24 nationally among public doctoral degree-granting universities, up one spot from last year's rankings. Purdue tied for 64th, along with the University of Connecticut and the University of Iowa, among both public and private universities.

The Krannert School of Management tied with Georgetown University, the University of Arizona and the University of Maryland for No. 21 in the nation for business programs.

The data for determining the nation’s best institutions of higher education comes from questionnaires sent to all accredited four-year colleges and universities. The magazine then determines its rankings based on several measures that fall into seven broad categories: peer assessment, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving and graduation rate.

The magazine bases its specialty rankings on ratings by deans and senior faculty in those disciplines at peer institutions.

Other specialty rankings for engineering include:

Aerospace/aeronautical/astronomical, No. 6 (tied with the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign).

Mechanical engineering, No. 7.

Civil engineering, No. 8.

Computer engineering, No. 11.

Electrical engineering, No. 12.

Materials engineering, No. 12 (tied with Ohio State University).

Chemical engineering, No. 15.

Environmental engineering, No. 19 (tied with Duke University and the University of Wisconsin).

U.S. News & World Report did not include a category for nuclear engineering this year.

Information on the rankings can be found at the U.S.News & World Report Web site (https://www.usnews.com). The magazine's college guidebook, "America's Best Colleges," contains a directory of more than 1,400 institutions.

Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu

Source: Leah Jamieson (765) 494-5346, lhj@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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