The Drexel University College of Engineering Graduate Program jumped seven spaces ahead in national rankings released this week by the US News & World Report survey on the Best Graduate Schools/Engineering, moving firmly into the nation’s top 75 schools of engineering for 2020. It is ranked at 75, tied with six other schools for that position. The College’s 2019 ranking was 82.
CoE is tied at 75 with George Washington University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, the University of California at Riverside, and the University of Central Florida.
Individually, CoE’s seven departments all landed within the nation’s top 50th percentile of graduate programs, with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering coming in the highest ranking, at 37th (of 111) in the country. Additional departments include: 40th (of 99) for Environmental Engineering; 52nd (of 181) for Mechanical Engineering; 53rd (of 152) for Civil Engineering; 56th (of 127) for Chemical Engineering; 61st (of 148) for Computer Engineering; and 62nd (of 186) for Electrical Engineering.
The rankings are based on statistical, overall score calculations in areas of quality assessment, including peer and recruiter assessment, student selectivity, faculty resources, and research activity.
“I am thrilled to see the US News and World Report rankings of the Drexel College of Engineering increase over the past year,” said Dr. Kapil Dandekar, associate dean for research and graduate studies and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “This ranking takes into account a wide variety of factors including peer and recruiter assessments, the selectivity, size and quality of our graduate student population, as well as financial measures of our research productivity.
“Making a sustained positive move in the rankings requires continual vigilance and excellence over a diverse range of fronts.”
Dandekar noted in particular the increase over the past year in the and recruiter assessment scores for the College, which form the largest percentage of its overall stats. On a five-point scale, the College went from 2.8/3.3 in peer/recruiter assessment in last year’s rankings to 3.0/3.4 in 2020, which largely fueled the increase in ranking. This score is a measure of how the College is rated by peers at colleges of engineering around the country. Dandekar noted that the score “speaks positively” about the national visibility of College faculty members and their scholarly and research activities.
In addition, the recruiter assessment is a measure of the quality of College graduates as determined by employers, according to Dandekar, and demonstrates continued strength at Drexel in preparing students for their careers s after graduation through both a quality education as well as our long-standing undergraduate co-operative education program and new graduate cooperative education program .
In another development, Drexel University was recently listed at the highest level of research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which assigned Drexel to its R1 status for the first time. Just 34 private institutions in the country fell into this category. The College of Engineering is Drexel’s second-largest research enterprise, providing significant support to that distinction.
“Building on the positive leadership of the College’s former Interim Dean Giuseppe Palmese, and with a new leadership team in place, this strong ranking marks a new beginning for the College and its place among the country’s best engineering schools,” said Dr. Sharon L. Walker, dean of the College. She noted that CoE is entering a strategic planning process that will continue to drive program success and advancements.
“This is just the start of great things to come,” said Walker. “Our future as Drexel’s flagship college is rich with opportunity.”