Stellar new undergraduate rankings boost Purdue Engineering's upward trajectory
With four top-4 programs, two highest-ever showings, College achieves highest year-on-year net increase in rankings across its disciplines
Purdue’s College of Engineering is soaring in its pursuit of excellence at scale with groundbreaking new national undergraduate engineering rankings released by U.S. News & World Report on Sept. 18. It received a major boost with its best year-on-year improvement in net rankings across all its disciplines since USNWR began publishing undergraduate rankings in 2000.
The College scored improvements in eight of its 11 ranked disciplines, and two programs recorded historic highest ranks.
Four Purdue Engineering programs are now ranked in the top 4 in the nation:
- Agricultural and biological engineering (ABE), No. 1
- Industrial engineering (IE), No. 2
- Aeronautical and astronautical engineering (AAE), No. 3
- Civil engineering (CE), No. 4
Seven Purdue Engineering programs are ranked in the top 10 in the nation. In addition to the programs above, they are:
- Mechanical engineering (ME), No. 6
- Computer engineering (CompE), No. 7
- Electrical engineering (EE), No. 8
Two programs recorded their highest-ever disciplinary rankings:
- Computer engineering (CompE), No. 7
- Aeronautical and astronautical engineering (AAE), No. 3
Moving up in its overall position for the second consecutive year, the College of Engineering rose to No. 8.
“We are proud of our new undergraduate rankings, which reflect our goal to become the incubator of the largest, best-prepared and most-diverse engineering talent pool in the nation,” said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering. “Purdue Engineering faculty, staff and students all deserve credit for elevating the College’s excellence at scale in providing top-notch education and experiential learning, co-ops and internships for diverse careers to solve society’s most pressing problems.”
The new undergraduate rankings augment an array of impressive showings for Purdue Engineering. Earlier this year, USNWR ranked the College’s overall graduate/research engineering programs at No. 4, for the third consecutive year and the first time without a tie, and ranked its online engineering master’s programs at No. 2.
Raman noted the latest undergraduate rankings expand on an auspicious start of the fall semester.
“We are excited to have welcomed our third-largest class, with 2,455 first-year students in engineering,” he said. “It is our most selective class, with the highest average high school GPA, and the most diverse class in our history.”
Momentum continues to build for Purdue Engineering. Other recent milestones include establishing the nation’s first comprehensive semiconductor degrees program, launching the first hypersonic ground test center in the U.S., developing the only Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel in the world and providing a robust innovation engine enriching various sectors of society.