Berkeley Engineering ranked #2 for undergrad programs

Berkeley Engineering’s undergraduate program has moved from third to second place in new annual rankings released by U.S. News & World Report, tying it with Stanford University. The College of Engineering, evaluated among more than 200 engineering schools, had the highest-ranked public university program.

The U.S. News ranking included all of Berkeley’s individual undergraduate programs in the top 8, with civil engineering, electrical engineering, materials engineering, chemical engineering and computer engineering all in the top 3.

Each year, U.S. News evaluates engineering schools based on peer assessment surveys. To appear on an undergraduate engineering survey, a school must have an undergraduate engineering program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. Each school is evaluated on factors such as peer and recruiter assessments, SAT scores, acceptance rates, number of Ph.D. degrees awarded, research expenditures and percentage of faculty who belong to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (Berkeley has 77 NAE members). UC Berkeley was compared with other schools whose highest engineering degree offered is a doctorate.

The magazine will release its graduate school rankings in March.