U.S. News Rankings of Engineering Programs in Institutions without Doctoral Programs in Engineering: A Six-Year Longitudinal Study

One of the questions engineering educators are often asked by their various constituencies is “How does your program rank nationally?” For the subject group of engineering programs (those without doctoral programs in engineering at their institution), the highly publicized annual U.S. News rankings are often cited - or rationalized - depending on the most recent rankings. In the U.S. News survey, each respondent is asked to rate the listed programs from 5 (highest) to 1 (lowest). In this paper, the authors explore the temporal variability over the most recent six rating/ranking year periods of the U.S. News ratings and rankings of bachelor’s degree programs in engineering in institutions that do not offer doctoral programs in engineering. Specifically, this paper explores the variation of these annual ratings and rankings from year to year, institution by institution (but without specific institutional identification, which is not the purpose of the paper) and provides graphical data that illustrates the amount and a discussion that indicates the reason for some of this variability.