In the annual rankings of undergraduate program quality by U.S. News & World Report, the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin ranked ninth in the nation among 364 accredited engineering schools, and fifth among the public institutions.
“The quality of our faculty’s teaching and research, as well as the learning aptitudes and accomplishments of our students translate into these rankings,” noted Ben Streetman, dean of the Cockrell School. "Recruiting and supporting the best faculty and students creates a learning environment where significant technologies naturally develop and ultimately improve the lives of people everywhere.”
The rankings are based on a peer survey of deans and senior faculty. U.S. News editors asked these engineers to rate each program they are familiar with on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Participants ranked the engineering schools in two groups: undergraduate programs at engineering schools whose highest degree is a doctorate; and undergraduate programs at engineering schools whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s.
Since the magazine began ranking undergraduate engineering programs in 1996, the Cockrell School has consistently ranked at least 12th .
The Cockrell School offers nine undergraduate engineering programs. Those rated in this year’s rankings appeared as follows: aerospace engineering (9), biomedical engineering (19), chemical engineering (9), civil engineering (6), electrical engineering (9), and mechanical engineering (11).
The magazine includes architectural engineering within its rankings of civil engineering programs. Petroleum engineering programs, which include geosystems and hydrogeology programs, were not ranked this year.
U.S. News also highly ranked two specialty areas within the Cockrell School. The environmental engineering specialty ranked sixth and the computer engineering specialty ranked eighth.
Another recent survey also ranks the Cockrell School highly. The June 2007 edition of Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine ranked the Cockrell School fourth nationally in numbers of minority students earning a B.S. degree in engineering.
In addition, the Cockrell School faculty includes the fourth highest number of National Academy of Engineering members. Election to the National Academy of Engineering is considered among the highest honors earned by an engineer.
The Cockrell School enrolls approximately 5,000 undergraduate students and 2,000 graduate students.
