With the recent openings of Levine Hall and the Weiss Tech House, and a new Towne Building coffee shop ready to greet students this semester, Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science has a lot to be excited about.
But possibly the most impressive news is the school's new and improved U.S. News and World Report ranking as one of the top 25 undergraduate engineering programs in the country.
Moving up 12 places from the No. 37 spot, the undergraduate division is now ranked No. 25 -- the third-highest ranking given to an Ivy League undergraduate engineering program.
Cornell University was ranked ninth and Princeton University came in at No. 11, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top spot and Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley tied for second.
Penn tied for the 25th spot, along with Ohio State University, the University of California at San Diego and the University of Maryland at College Park.
The large jump in the undergraduate rankings follows last spring's small drop in the graduate division, when the Engineering School's graduate program fell in the U.S. News graduate school rankings from No. 28 to No. 29, tied with the University of Washington.
Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt said that the rankings are important for the visibility of the school, but added that they would not be a driving force in shaping its future.
"We would not let the ranking decide how we teach and what we encourage our students to do," Glandt said, explaining that his philosophy is to boost the morale of students and provide them with opportunities for both academic and extracurricular enrichment.
"In the end, the rankings will follow," Glandt said.
Norm Badler, director of academic programs, agreed.
"We don't sit around thinking about the rankings," he said. "Our task is to ensure the best undergraduate education our students can receive."
With a slew of new professors hired over the past few years, a new building opening last spring and improvements in several departments, faculty members said they were not surprised that the ranking has gone up.
"I think that our ranking always deserved to be that high," Bioengineering Department Chairman Daniel Hammer said.
Others cited some recent developments, such as Levine Hall and Penn's strong bioengineering department in today's biology-focused scientific culture, as explanations for the school's increased success.
"People see a rejuvenation," Glandt said.
Glandt emphasized the importance of newly hired, talented young professors who have also brought in more research funding -- Glandt said that the school has hired 17 new faculty members since he became dean
