The Vanderbilt University School of Engineering tied seven other universities at No. 35 on the U.S. News and World Report’s 2014 list of the nation’s top undergraduate engineering programs at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.
U.S. News released online today its annual rankings of the United States’ best colleges and universities. For the fifth straight year, Vanderbilt University holds the No. 17 position. Princeton is ranked No. 1.
The School of Engineering shares the No. 35 overall ranking with Brown University, Case Western Reserve University, Iowa State University, Lehigh University, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Florida and the University of Virginia. MIT is ranked No. 1.
Last year the school was ranked at No. 34 along with Yale, University of Virginia, University of Florida and the University of Colorado-Boulder. This year UC-Boulder moved to No. 32 and Yale moved to No. 43.
Among undergraduate engineering specialties, biomedical engineering ranks No. 17.
U.S. News ranks undergraduate engineering programs accredited by ABET (formerly known as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). The rankings are based solely on a survey of engineering deans and senior faculty at all accredited programs, conducted during the spring of 2013. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed for the doctorate group returned ratings.
U.S. News reported Sept. 3 it had made significant changes to the 2014 methodology to reduce the weight of input factors that reflect a school’s student body and increase the weight of output measures that signal how well a school educates its students. As a result of these and other changes, many schools’ ranks will change in the 2014 edition of the Best Colleges rankings compared with the 2013 edition.