U.S News and World Report has released their 2009 rankings of America’s Best Graduate Schools, and Tech’s College of Engineering has maintained its position as the fourth highest ranked school in the country. This year’s rankings also saw the Computer Science program make its way into the top ten for the first time.
U.S News and World Report has been compiling college and university rankings since 1983. The data used in these rankings came from surveys conducted in the previous Fall. More than 1200 programs and around 14,000 academics and professionals took part in the surveys.
“It’s great to see so many of our graduate programs sustaining their high national rankings,” said Institute President Wayne Clough. “While rankings are not the sole measure of success, we like to see consistent quality and positive growth.”
The College of Engineering has ranked very consistently over the years. In addition to this year’s fourth place ranking, the College of Engineering has been ranked in the top five engineering schools in the previous two years. Ten individual programs were ranked in the top ten in their respective categories this year. This is up from eight programs in the 2007 rankings.
Industrial Engineering was ranked first. Biomedical Engineering came in second. Aerospace Engineering was slotted fourth. The Civil, Environmental and Electrical Engineering programs were all ranked sixth in their respective categories. Computer and Mechanical Engineering both held seventh place rankings. Materials Engineering came in eighth, and Nuclear Engineering came in ninth.
The Computer Science program was ranked ninth in the nation overall, moving up from its 11th place position in the 2007 rankings. Assisting in the overall position were top ten rankings from three programs. Artificial Intelligence finished in seventh. The Theory Program finished in ninth and the Systems Program came in at tenth.
For the second year in a row, Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics was ranked seventh.
The College of Management’s ranking fell four places this year to 29th, after a 25th place finish last year. However, the Production/Operation Program was ranked 13th, and the Supply Chain/Logistics Program came in at 16th in the nation. Both of these programs moved up in the rankings.
“I’m very proud of our faculty, graduate students and staff,” Clough said. “We’re competing against some of the finest universities in the world and excelling.”