When it comes to sheer numbers, Penn State's undergraduate engineers are tops. The first place ranking came in a new report on the number of baccalaureate degrees universities granted in engineering during the 1999-2000 academic year.

The College of Engineering handed out 1,263 bachelor of science degrees, just barely edging out second-place school Georgia Institute of Technology by 20 students. The University of Illinois was ranked third with 1,136.

"The new engineering graduates are enjoying an extraordinarily attractive employment market," said Robert Pangborn, associate dean of the college.

A survey of the recent alumni found that they were earning an average of $45,700 in entry-level positions, he added.

On the list of all engineering graduates — counting those with new B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees that year — Penn State came in at No. 3, with Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan first and second.

The rankings were released by the Engineering Workforce Commission, which conducts annual surveys of industry and engineering schools and monitors trends in the supply and demand for engineers, according to the American Association of Engineering Societies' Web site.