On Monday, Sept. 9, U.S. News and World Report released its annual undergraduate rankings of 1,921 colleges from around the world. On this ranking, Tech ranked as 5th in the country for public universities, 29th in the country overall and 69th in the world. Tech shot up from its rankings in 2018, from 8th in public universities and 35th in the nation, as well as edging up from 71st internationally.
Colleges at Tech were also highly ranked as were individual degree programs. The College of Engineering is tied with the California Institute of Technology for 4th-best undergraduate engineering program in the country. Each undergraduate engineering program made the top five of its kind in the country. 2020 marks the 25th year in a row that the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering makes the top of the list for industrial engineering programs.
The College of Business ties with seven other universities for the 22nd spot in the best business program category, and many of their programs ranked in the top-ten nationally.
Tech also ranked fourth in the innovation category, fifth for co-ops and internships and eighth for undergraduate research and creative projects.
The rankings are calculated based on data from the 2018 school year. U.S. News and World Report evaluates schools in the following broad categories: regional colleges, regional universities, national liberal arts colleges and national universities. Tech is classified as a national university because it is among schools that “offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and doctoral programs, and emphasize faculty research or award professional practice doctorates.”
Each school is evaluated on fifteen indicators of success, each of which is weighted differently based on importance. The factors include outcomes, such as graduation and retention rates, graduation rate performance, and social mobility; faculty resources, such as class size and faculty salary; expert opinions; financial resources; student excellence, such as standardized tests and high school standing; and alumni giving.
Based on the ranking and weight of each indicator, each college is assigned a score on the 0 to 100 scale. Tech’s final score was 72. Graduate program rankings from U.S. News and World Report are released annually in the spring.
Rankings are just numbers, but they are numbers that can greatly impact the way students choose which school to go to and the way employers evaluate the prestige of a degree. U.S. News and World Report uses just one method of ranking a school; others include the Times Higher Education Rankings (38th internationally), Forbes (65th nationally) and Niche (5th among public schools).
These rankings reflect not only the quality of the university, but also the student body. The prestige belongs to all Jackets.