Improving a School's U.S. News and World Report Ranking

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2004 by Tsakalis, Konstantinos S, Palais, Joseph C

We conclude with a couple of interesting observations regarding the correlations between model variables. One is that when NAE members are considered as a driving force (as in the first causal model), they are assumed or expected to perform at a significantly higher level than the average faculty. That is, they should contribute roughly $2M of expenditures and supervise 14 Ph.D. students. In contrast, the average faculty is expected to contribute $400K expenditures and supervise 3 Ph.D. students.

The other observation is that for the top 50 schools the number of Ph.D. graduates and expenditures exhibit a strong correlation (coefficient 0.87) and slope (about $750k/Ph.D.). The maximum slope is approximately $1.5M/Ph.D. and the minimum is $500k/Ph.D. These figures include expenditures for support of the rest of the graduate students as well as for the infrastructure needed for the work. This implies that it is essential for a graduate program to maintain a significant percentage of costly projects if it hopes to obtain (or retain) a high ranking. Typically such projects tend to be large-scale, experimentally based research efforts.

REFERENCES

[1] Vojak, B.A., Price, R.L., and J.C. Carnahan, "The Relationship Between Department Rank and College Rank in Engineering Graduate Program Rankings Conducted by U.S. News and World Report," Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 92, No. 1, 2003, pp. 65-72.

[2] Savage, P.E., "Productivity and Quality Indicators For Highly Ranked ChE Graduate Programs," Chemical Engineering Education, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2003, pp. 94-99.

[3] U. S. News and World Report, Best Graduate Schools, April 15, 2002.

[4] Gourman Report: Undergraduate Programs and Professional Programs in American and International Universities. Princeton Review Publishing, NY. 1998.

[5] The Laissez-Faire Ranking, , accessed March 4, 2004, and , accessed March 4, 2004.

[6] Goldberger, M., Maher, B., and P. Flattau, P. (Editors), Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1995. Results of a 1993 NRC Study.

KONSTANTINOS S. TSAKALIS

Department of Electrical Engineering

Arizona State University

JOSEPH C. PALAIS

Department of Electrical Engineering

Arizona State University

AUTHORS' BIOGRAPHIES

Konstantinos S. Tsakalis is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University. He received his B.S. Ch.E. degree from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and his M.S. Ch.E., M.S. E.E. and Ph.D. E.E. degrees from the University of Southern California. His interests are in robust adaptive control, time varying systems, applications of control, identification, and optimization in semiconductor manufacturing problems and, more recently, the application of adaptive systems theory on the prediction and control of epileptic seizures. He is responsible for the control-theoretic and algorithmic component of SEMY's (now part of Brooks PPI) Model Based Temperature Control system, which received five patents and the 1998 best products award from Semiconductor International magazine.