MIT tops US News and World Report rankings once again
MIT tops US News and World Report rankings once again
It doesn’t come as a surprise that U.S. News and World Report has once again ranked MIT as the overall best graduate engineering school in the country. MIT has held this title since 1990, the year U.S. News began ranking engineering programs. Notably, the following engineering departments — chemical, materials, computer, and electrical (the latter two tied with Stanford University) — were given first-place ratings. Other specialties with a top-five rank were aeronautics and astronautics (No. 2), mechanical (No. 2), nuclear (No. 2), and biological (No. 5).
MIT’s graduate math program earned a first place rank. Other distinctions in science include tied first-place ranks in physics (tied with Stanford, California Institute of Technology, Harvard University), Chemistry (tied with Caltech, U.C. Berkeley), Earth Sciences (tied with CalTech) and Computer Science (tied with Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University and U.C. Berkeley) graduate programs, and second in Biological Science (tied with Harvard, U.C. Berkeley). MIT even proved its worth in a field outside science and technology, with the economics department earning a number one spot and political science at number nine.
The MIT Sloan School of Management was tied for fourth best business school with Northwestern University and University of Chicago. Among Sloan’s offerings, its programs in information systems, production/operation, and supply/chain logistics came in first. Its MBA degrees in finance and entrepreneurship also earned ranks of fourth and fifth, respectively.
MIT’s undergraduate engineering program paralleled its graduate one with a number one ranking. Overall, MIT was ranked fifth best undergraduate school.
It is important to note that a decrease in ranking in a particular field does not mean the program is any lower quality than it was the year before. Last year, MIT was ranked first in mechanical and aeronautical/astronautical engineering, despite the second place ranking this year. Instead, the rankings change each year because of constantly shifting criteria.
For professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law, and medicine, U.S. News ranks schools based on expert opinions and statistical indicators such as acceptance rates, average GRE scores, starting salaries, and employment rates upon graduation. Programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, and health are based solely on ratings and surveys completed by academic experts.
—Adisa Kruayatidee