Engineering college ranks high in report

By LISA KIENZLE
Collegian Staff Writer

The results are in -- now it's time for Penn State to see whether it passed the test.

Last week, U.S. News and World Report released its year 2000 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools.

This year, Penn State's College of Engineering moved up three notches to 15 from last year's ranking of 18, which is not a surprise to faculty members.

"The College of Engineering has worked very hard to recruit excellent faculty and students," said Lynne Goodstein, associate dean of the Penn State Graduate School. "There have been some initiatives in the past years that perhaps have started to pay off in recruiting students and faculty."

Other Penn State graduate schools did not meet with the same success. This year the Smeal College of Business Administration ranked 49, dropping from its previous rank of 31.

Charles Dubois, assistant to the dean for the college's public relations, said although last year's class of business students scored well on their Graduate Management Admissions Tests (GMATs), other deviations could account for the new rank. Last year's graduating class had less work experience, which also affected the ranking, Dubois added.

"Most schools have ups and downs," he said. "We were happy, but are looking ahead to the future and anticipate a very good year."

According to the report, the methodology used to rank schools encompasses several areas, both objective and subjective.

One of these areas involves reputation, which includes surveys aimed at directors and deans of the school as well as corporate recruiters who hire graduates from the programs. Student selectivity and placement success, faculty resources, and research activity also are taken into account.

The scores then are weighted, totaled and rescaled so the highest ranked school receives a 100 and the remaining schools are assigned a percentage of this score.

Alan Janesch, assistant manager of the news bureau of Penn State's Department of Public Information, pointed out the nature of scoring does not necessarily present an accurate picture of where one school ranks in comparison to others.

"Schools that are actually very close, of very high quality, may have similar ranks but (may) be spread far apart," Janesch said.

Overall, Penn State's education program was ranked No. 27, and many of its specialty programs ranked high. Administration and supervision was eighth, higher education administration was first, and vocational and technical was ranked third.

Faculty members were encouraged by the results.

"It's terrific to see colleges and programs ranked among the top universities in the country," Goodstein said. "We're working very hard to improve the quality of graduate programs here at Penn State.

"We look forward to more improvement in the future."