The University of Wisconsin–Madison is tied for 12th among public institutions in U.S. News & World Report’s latest college rankings. Overall, UW–Madison ranks 46th in a six-way tie, while the College of Engineering ranked No. 14 overall.
The rankings include more than 310 national doctoral universities and are included in the 2018 edition of America’s Best Colleges.
Several engineering undergraduate programs also were ranked. They include:
Biomedical engineering—24
Civil and environmental engineering—18
Chemical engineering—5
Computer engineering—14
Industrial engineering—5
Materials science and engineering—15
Mechanical engineering—19
These overall engineering rankings are based solely on peer assessment surveys.
U.S. News gathers data from and about each school in academic excellence, including first-year student retention and graduation of students, peer assessment, faculty resources, admissions selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving and graduate rate performances, which is the difference between the proportion of students expected to graduate and the proportion who do. Each indicator is assigned a weight based on U.S. News’ judgments about which measures of quality matter most—graduation and retention rates, categories UW–Madison performs well in, are the most heavily weighed factors.
For the second year in a row, UW–Madison was ranked 14th overall and sixth among publics in the “A Strong Commitment to Undergraduate Teaching” category.
UW-Madison is ranked as the 18th “Best College for Veterans” in a four-way tie. Institutions included on this list must be certified for the GI Bill, participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program or be a public institution that charges in-state tuition to all out-of-state veterans, must have enrolled a minimum of 20 veterans and active service members in the 2016-17 academic year, and must be ranked in the top half of the institution’s overall U.S. News ranking category.