Undergraduate program ascends rankings to 15th among public universities
In U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Colleges issue, Ohio State’s undergraduate engineering program again ranks first in Ohio and has risen to 15th among public universities nationwide. Among both public and private institutions, Ohio State Engineering ranks 27th overall, tied with Harvard University and University of Minnesota.
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering ranked 15th in the nation, the highest of Ohio State’s six departments or specialties that received enough votes for inclusion. Other Ohio State engineering undergraduate programs ranking among the nation’s best include mechanical engineering (19), aerospace engineering (21), civil engineering (21), electrical engineering (26) and biomedical engineering (27).
U.S. News and World Report began evaluating undergraduate computer science programs in a separate category in 2020. In this year’s issue, Ohio State ranked 37th among 538 programs nationally and 17th in the data analytics specialty category.
“It’s rewarding to see that faculty and staff efforts to optimize evidence-based classroom practices while increasing the number, quality and diversity of engineering graduates is bearing fruit,” said College of Engineering Dean Ayanna Howard. “Leaning into our mission as a land-grant institution, we will continue to meet the growing talent demand in Ohio and beyond.”
The publication’s rankings of undergrad engineering programs are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions. In the spring and summer of 2022, U.S. News surveyed deans and faculty members of undergraduate engineering programs accredited by ABET, the engineering accrediting body. Respondents were asked to rate each program they were familiar with on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Each qualifying engineering school or program was sent two peer assessment surveys.
U.S. News has separate rankings for the 212 undergraduate engineering programs at colleges or universities that offer doctoral degrees in engineering and for the 230 engineering programs at institutions where the terminal degree in engineering is a bachelor's or master's.
To be included in the computer science peer assessment survey and ranked, a program must either have been accredited by ABET or have recently awarded 20 or more bachelor's degrees in computer science.
In March, The Ohio State University College of Engineering’s graduate program ranked first in Ohio and 16th among all public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Graduate Schools issue.
