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Features: April 8, 2002
Graduate Program in Engineering Ranked
31st by U.S. News, Applied
Math Ranked 21st
Rensselaer's graduate school of engineering
is ranked 31st in the nation in the latest edition of "Best
Graduate Schools" published by U.S. News & World
Report. The rankings appear in the April 15 issue of
the magazine (which hit newsstands on April 8) and in the
publication's 2003 "Best Graduate Schools" guide.
Rensselaer's program in applied mathematics
is ranked 21st in the nation, tied with Harvard, Rutgers,
SUNY-Stony Brook, and University of Colorado at Boulder.
This is the first year that U.S. News ranked Ph.D.
programs in (See separate story.)
In 2001, Rensselaer's graduate program in
engineering was ranked 25th in the country, tied with Virginia
Tech. The move to 31st reflects a significant change in
the way U.S. News counts university research dollars
— a change that caused the Institute to lose credit
for $10 million in multidisciplinary research. The rankings
also reflect an older picture of the school that does not
take into account recent accomplishments.
"Useful as they may be, the rankings
do not accurately reflect the real-time vitality of an institution,"
said President Jackson. "The true strength of Rensselaer
is reflected in the fact that the National Science Foundation
recently awarded the Institute a $10 million Engineering
Research Center for the Directed Assembly of Nanostructures.
In addition, Rensselaer just won a national competition
for the $9 million Center for Advanced Interconnect Systems
Technologies. In December we announced funding for a $14
million constellation in tissue engineering. Nine of our
engineering faculty won NSF Career Awards in the past three
years; Institutewide, 17 faculty members over the last three
years. And Rensselaer was one of only three university finalists
for the U.S. Army Institute for Soldier Technologies. These
and other advances are important measures of our real-time
prestige."
The future of the graduate engineering program
is stronger than ever, said Engineering Dean William "Bud"
Baeslack '78. "The Rensselaer Plan is designed to double
both the Ph.D. program and the level of externally funded
research. In addition, we are poised to attract some of
the country's most brilliant researchers to new constellations
in biotechnology and information technology. We are building
a new center for biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies.
And we will be matching these new strengths with our long-held
reputation in microelectronics, materials engineering, modeling
and simulation, and other core fields," Baeslack said.
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