Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990 TAG: 9003143168
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"It's a testament to . . . Tech's school and the progress that it's made that it can even get on the list," Clough said Tuesday. "There's no question that making it is a positive thing for us."
William Stephenson, associate dean for research and graduate programs, agreed. "There's something about the place. There's just a feeling that [the engineering college] is moving. It's getting more recognition."
But the magazine's ranking of the top 25 law, medical, engineering and business schools - which appears in the current issue - is sure to rankle some university officials the same as its "America's Best Colleges" issue.
Two years ago, some two dozen college and university presidents paid a visit to the magazine to complain about the feature, saying the methodology was flawed and the survey was a disservice to high school students trying to select a college.
The magazine defends its survey: "The sad truth is that it is easier to learn about the relative merits of compact disc players than it is to compare and contrast America's professional schools."
Clough, head of Tech's civil engineering department, maintains that the rankings perpetuate the reputations of the engineering powerhouses because the people interviewed by the magazine tend to have graduated from those same schools.
"A lot of these things tend to be biased toward schools that have been in the research business a lot longer than we have," he said, adding that reputations take as long to gain as they do to lose.
The University of California-Berkeley, Clough's alma mater, has been granting doctoral degrees and funding research decades longer than Tech, which has grown markedly in size and stature for the past 20 years under departing Dean Paul Torgersen.
Three California schools - Berkeley, Stanford University and California Institute of Technology - are among the magazine's top five. Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rated first, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is third.
The same schools predominated U.S. News' ranking of engineering-school departments in each of 12 specialities. The rankings were compiled from reputational surveys of engineering deans and academic affairs deans.
The magazine considered the student selectivity, placement, graduation rates, resources, research and reputation of 192 accredited schools offering master's and doctoral degrees in engineering. Excluded were primarily undergraduate engineering schools with small graduate divisions.
Although some university officials - even those whose schools rank fairly well - try to downplay the rankings, U.S. News says one thing is clear: schools matter.
"Who gets hired or even interviewed for a job at an elite law firm, for an internship at a renowned hospital, for a promising slot in a corporate training program, all too frequently depends upon the line on a resume that begins with the word education," the magazine said in explaining its graduate school rankings.
U.S. News also rated the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business 11th best in the country. UVa's School of Law was named 10th best, Washington and Lee University School of Law tied for 25th and George Mason University Law School was named an "up-and-comer."
by CNB