In this year's U.S. News and World Report college rankings, Penn's undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Science fell 15 spots from its position last year.
And what makes the drop from No. 22 to No. 37 perhaps more surprising is that while the Engineering School falters, the University is faring better than ever in the annual list.
Overall, Penn was ranked fourth, its highest ranking to date, and the Wharton School was ranked first amongst undergraduate business programs.
But according to Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt, excellence is not in the numbers.
"Thirty-seven is no description of what goes on here," Glandt said. "This ranking is just a beauty contest among people who don't know us."
U.S. News ranks all undergraduate engineering programs that are recognized by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. The results are based on the judgements of deans and senior faculty who rate the programs in their particular specialty from one (marginal) to five (distinguished).
Penn's Engineering School received an overall score of 3.4.
Glandt described the methodology behind the ranking as a "haphazard way of judging a school."
"The ranking is weighted predominately in favor of larger schools and doesn't nearly represent the quality of Penn's Engineering School," Materials Science and Engineering Professor Dawn Bonnell said.
Glandt also attributed the school's low ranking to its small size -- around 850 students per class -- and the fact that many Engineering students do not actually go on to become engineers and therefore are not visible in the job market to those judging the school.
He explained that students leave the Engineering School and go into a variety of fields.
"We are not going to tell the students what to do just because it will positively affect the rankings," Glandt said.
"Penn is not an engineering mill," he added. "Every student is a different story, a different career path. We think we impart a more well-rounded education that will allow students to become the bosses of the engineers from the other engineering mills."
U.S. News also ranks engineering schools by specialty. Penn's Biomedical Engineering Department was ranked sixth in the country, and the Chemical Engineering Department was ranked 19th.
Bonnell pointed out the discrepancy between these numbers and the school's overall ranking, concluding that number 37 is not an accurate reflection of Penn Engineering.
Although Penn Engineering trails behind schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and California Institute of Technology, Glandt said that the undergraduate engineering school rankings are not very significant and that he does not pay much attention to them. He expressed that the graduate school's ranking, which was 28th in the most recent ranking, is more meaningful.
In fact, Glandt described the undergraduate rankings simply as "noise."
However, Glandt did admit last year that the magazine's rankings do make an impact on the way prospective students view the school as a whole.
"This is not something you push aside," Glandt said last year of the University's favorable ranking. "Perception is a part of reality."
Students, though, tended to side with Glandt's current view on the rankings as a whole.
"I didn't choose Penn for its ranking, and prospective students who like the school will choose it regardless of the ranking," Engineering senior Kevin Galloway said.
Engineering freshman Kevin Litcofsky admitted that he was not even aware of the Engineering School's ranking when he applied and only paid attention to the U.S. News ranking of the University as a whole.
But some faculty said that although the rankings may not be the best assessment of the school, there is some work to be done.
"Penn has one of the better engineering schools, but it's not at the level we'd like it to be," Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Warren Seider said. "Dean Glandt is working to strengthen many of the school's departments such as biomedical engineering and biomolecular engineering, but it doesn't happen overnight."
