I like engineering. I like the School of Mines. I like that South Dakota has a top-flight engineering school where really smart people learn to build really useful things.
I also like actual news with integrity, not marketing for state entities dressed up as news.
KELO-TV offers this happy ramble about the School of Mines being named “the best engineering school in the country.” Sydney Thorson tells us 97% of Mines grads “are expected to find careers in their field of study.” She says that Mines provost Lance Roberts says that Mines has been “working hard to earn this ranking.” Roberts says Mines grads earn starting salaries of $63K, which is great.
But we have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the report to find the source:
The high marks and recognition come from the organization College Factual [Sydney Thorson, “South Dakota School of Mines Ranks as the Best Engineering School in the Country,” KELO-TV, 2019.10.16].
College Factual runs this banner on its website:
“There’s no such thing as ‘The Best College’ only the ‘Best College for YOU’.”
College Factual nonetheless offers a plethora of rankings by major and multiple criteria. Much clicking brings me to this page showing different ways to rank schools that offer engineering majors. Mines makes #1 on one criterion: “Best Value.”
But KELO-TV didn’t say Mines was the “best value”; they said Mines is “the best engineering school in the country.” (Note: that punctuation is a period.) That phrase means overall, looking at all criteria. College Factual provides just such an overall ranking. The Colorado School of Mines is #1, followed by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rose-Hulman Institute of Techonology, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
On that list, the South Dakota School of Mines ranks #13. That beats the pants of SDSU, whose engineering major College Factual ranks #195. But #13 isn’t #1.
Mines ranks #208 for top graduate pay, #156 for number of graduates, #8 for “most focused” (i.e., percentage of students in engineering), Mines gets no ranking in College Factual’s categories for online engineering programs or non-trad students.
Looking toward the synecdochal half of the school’s name, Mines ranks 9th for best value in geological and earth sciences. UNiversity of Wyoming is #1 in that field.
And if you want to talk overall overall, top quality for the school as a whole, College Factual ranks Mines as the 359th best school out of 1,727 in its rankings, 32nd best out of 190 on the Plains, and 2nd out of 12 in South Dakota. On the South Dakota overall scale, College Factual says Augustana is #1, SDSU #3.
None of this says Mines is a bad place to go to school. As College Factual says, there’s no such thing as a best college; different colleges meet different needs for different students. Engineering buffs can get a great education at Mines and great jobs afterwards. But hopeful engineers can find knowledge and success at SDSU as well. And some engineers may realize they are better off going to Augie and writing poems.
Saying the the South Dakota School of Mines is “the best engineering school in the country” is a fine marketing line, but it is not a newsworthy claim supported by the evidence presented by KELO-TV.
This should further upset the flatlanders.
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-state/bachelors/south-dakota
Grubby, with his slide rule and six shooter, likes to upset the state’s vermin (Coyotes and Jackrabbits).
In my day I attended three colleges, USD, Augustana College (as it was then called) and UW-Madison. Each had their good points and bad points, but after a couple semesters anywhere you come to realize that your education is up to you. One thing about college is you can start out going one direction and end up going into an entirely different field. I didn’t focus much at USD, but that was my problem, not the school’s. After I found a focus, it was much easier. In the end, I ended up in biology and ecology when I had started out in political science and pre-law and then dabbled in social work. But I ended up combining all of it during my various careers.
Interesting chart on pay, King! It certainly supports the idea that, if you want to increase your earning power, be an engineer.
But note that the chart shows that 92% of Mines degrees are in STEM. Every other SD college except DSU on the list has less than 20% STEM degrees. DSU has 53% STEM degrees, but their grads’ average starting salary is way behind Mines, just like everyone else, it’s less than SDSU’s, and it’s less than $1,000 more than at Augie and USD. SDSU, Augie, and USD all beat DSU on mid-career pay by a few thousand dollars. Mines is in a class of its own on those metrics; DSU appears to cling to the bottom of the next tier with SDSU, Augie, and USD; the other campuses fall to a clearly distinct third tier on earnings.
“your education is up to you”—huge point, Donald, one that every aspiring collegian needs to hear from every parent and every guidance counselor. I made a hard choice once upon a time between a private institution charging four times what my public in-state colleges were asking and one of those nearby public institutions. I decided both the private and public institutions had smart professors and libraries. Both offered me the chance to learn all that I wanted. I saved my money and ultimately chose a state university.
Your education is up to you. There is no one right magical place where you can make that education happen. There are many right places where you can still fail to make it happen if you spend your freshman year majoring in beer or otherwise not focusing your attention and effort.
Several years ago, my firm assisted SDSMT in their strategic planning. One fact that cam out in several different ways was that SDSMT graduates were desirable employees in part because the school worked harder than most competing institutions to develop managerial and leadership skills (sometimes expressed by employers as “people skills”) in students. As a result, SDSMT graduates were more likely to be promoted into team leader and supervisory roles quicker (earlier in their careers) than engineering graduates from competing institutions.
One longtime engineer manager working at a major corporation told me that he preferred making employment offers SDSMT graduates whenever feasible because there were a lot of engineers who never learned how to work with others, much less lead other engineers. He knew that SDSMT grads were ready because they were already skilled in more than engineering.
So interesting Mr. Wyland.
I received my undergraduate degree in Physical Education and Social Sciences, the typical I-wanna-be-a-coach path. It wasn’t till I began studying in the summer to keep my certification current that I had a chance to select topics that scratched my itch for history.
Now my grad degree is in theology, so go figure. Interests change and one’s education is what we make it. Since undergrad, mine has been fun.
Theology: “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially, the study of God and of God’s relation to the world”
Well, the study of religious faith, practice and experience is pretty interesting. The study of god, I suppose, is interesting, but, by definition, it is a study of a non-evidentially-revealed being. Where does one begin to study that premise?
Practical and like-minded fellows, like you and me, Bob, know that religion is a crutch for the weak.
STEM (science technology engineering math) has been the big push. Some schools realize that STEAM is important (science technology engineering ART math)
It is interesting, CIRD, fascinating even. The various ancient sources, especially archeology, add so much.
People have always wanted a supreme being of some type to exist. Whether one absolutely does or not will probably always be open to debate. Some “believers” see that as a threat to their religious system. I don’t.
Here’s something nice for SD, no fluffing required:
An organization created by television star Mike Rowe has awarded several scholarships to South Dakota students.
The mikeroweWORKS Foundation awarded ten scholarships to technical students in the state.
According to the foundation, the Finish Strong scholarships are awarded to boost technical education across the country. Students entering their second year at one of South Dakota’s four tech institutes had the chance to apply.
The program is matched by the state of South Dakota Future Fund for a total of $50,000 in scholarships.
The scholarship comes at an important time; skilled workers are in high demand, reflected in the 2.9% overall South Dakota unemployment rate in August 2019, according to the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation.
KSFY
Management and leadership skills—indeed, Michael, that sounds like a way that Mines can distinguish itself from other programs, making sure it’s engineers are as good at explaining and implementing their projects within organizations as they are at designing them.