UC Davis Engineering Ranks Among America’s Best Graduate Schools
The latest edition of America’s Best Graduate School Rankings, released by U.S. News & World Report on March 10, 2015, continues to rank the UC Davis College of Engineering among the best engineering schools in the nation. For the second consecutive year, UC Davis is ranked the 18th best public university for graduate education in engineering.
Programs at 193 engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees were included in the rankings. Positive indicators included total graduate enrollment growth (from 1,130 in FY2013 to 1,159 in FY2014); and increased graduate student selectivity (acceptance ratio from 24.3% in FY2013 to 21.3% in FY2014).
U.S. News & World Report reports that the peer assessment and recruiter assessment scores both decreased slightly from last year for the College of Engineering. Other downward factors included modest decreases in research expenditure overall total (from $78.3 million in FY13 to $73.5 million in FY2014); per faculty member research expenditures (from $434,860 to $417,800); GRE quantitative score (from 163 to 162, of a possible 170); percentage of faculty membership in the National Academy of Engineering (from 6.80% to 6.30%); doctoral degrees awarded (from 132 to 97); recruiter assessment score (from 3.8 to 3.7, on a 5 point scale); and decrease in peer assessment score (from 3.5 to 3.4). The detailed methodology for the rankings can be found at: http://www.usnews.com/gradmeth.
Most of the UC Davis College of Engineering’s graduate programs continue to rank among the best engineering programs at public universities. Agricultural Engineering again ranked 6th, while Environmental Engineering ranked 7th, Civil Engineering ranked 8th (tied with UC San Diego), and Biomedical Engineering ranked 9th. Programs that moved up included Aerospace Engineering, up two places to 18th (tied with the University of Florida); and Computer Engineering, up two spots to 19th (tied with Florida and the University of Massachusetts Amherst).
Other UC Davis Engineering programs that continue to show strength include Materials Science, 17th (tied with three schools); Chemical Engineering, 19th (tied with Iowa State); Computer Science, 19th (tied with four schools); Mechanical Engineering, 19th (tied with the University of Colorado—Boulder); and Electrical Engineering, 23rd (tied with three schools). These specialty rankings are based only on peer assessments made by department heads in each area.
Among University of California engineering schools, Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego retained their high public university engineering rankings (1st, 8th, and 9th overall, respectively), followed by Santa Barbara (11th, tying with one school), Davis (18th), Irvine (20th), Riverside (40th, tying with two schools) and Santa Cruz (51st, tying with one school).
