In U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges 2008" survey just released, Virginia Tech's undergraduate engineering is ranked 14th in the nation and several specialty programs also achieved high ratings.
The Virginia Tech College of Engineering — traditionally ranked as one of the top 20 engineering schools in the U.S. that offer doctorates — shares the undergraduate program spot of 14th with Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University. This places the three schools among the top three percent of the more than 580 institutions accredited by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology.
The Virginia Tech engineering program is ranked eighth among undergraduate programs at public universities.
In addition, six Virginia Tech undergraduate engineering specialties are ranked among the top 20 of their respective peer programs — aerospace engineering is ranked 14th; civil engineering, 11th; electrical engineering, 17; engineering science and mechanics, 8th; environmental engineering, 14th; industrial engineering, 9th; and mechanical engineering, 14th.
The individual college and specialty rankings released by U.S. News & World Report are based solely on peer assessment surveys of deans and senior faculty at accredited engineering schools.
"The continued respect shown for our undergraduate program by peer institutions is a bright spot for our college this year," said Richard C. Benson, dean of engineering. "I'm not one to attach much importance to small shifts in rankings, but the fact that our college stepped up a bit from 17th last year to 14th gives me confidence in the unflagging excellence of our faculty, staff, and students. We continue as one of the finest engineering schools in the nation and, I hope, as a source of pride for the citizens of Virginia."
Undergraduate engineering students are the power behind many of the achievements that draw attention to the Virginia Tech program, Benson said, including numerous first place wins in national air, water and ground vehicle competitions, and participation in well-known events such as RoboCup 2007, the international robot soccer tournament.
In a section of the survey titled "Programs to Look For," which the magazine describes as "stellar examples" of academic programs nominated through a national survey of chief university administrators, Virginia Tech is recognized as having one of the nation's 14 best cooperative education and internship programs.
"According to the post-graduation survey of Virginia Tech students, about 90 percent have had career-related experiences by the time they graduate, many of them in closely supervised and often well-paid jobs with business and industry," said Pam Herrmann, senior assistant director of Career Services and director of the Cooperative Education and Internship Program at the university.
Among 2005-2006 graduates, for example, 45 percent participated in paid internships, 16 percent in unpaid internships, and nine percent in co-op jobs. "At Virginia Tech, students from every college participate in internships, while about 90 percent of students in the Cooperative Education and Internship Program are from the College of Engineering and about eight percent are from the Pamplin College of Business," Herrmann said. Students also gain career-related experience through undergraduate research, volunteer work, service learning, and part-time and summer jobs.
Overall, Virginia Tech's undergraduate program is ranked 71st among all U.S. universities that offer doctoral programs and 29th among public institutions. This constitutes a slight rise from last year's survey, when the university was ranked 77th on the national list and 34th on the public list.
U.S. News & World Report bases the overall university rankings, which have been published annually since 1983, on a number of criteria, including peer assessment, retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rates, and alumni giving.