When you're hot, you're hot. During a six-week period this fall, the national honors just kept coming for Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

First, it was the announcement that Rose-Hulman had retained the No. 1 ranking for a fifth consecutive year in its category in U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" survey. Each of the college's engineering departments that were among those included in the magazine's survey earned a No. 1 ranking for the fourth straight year.

Ten days after the U.S. News rankings announcement, more than three million readers of Newsweek learned that Rose-Hulman is one of only 12 institutions selected for a "hot schools" list by the editors of the Kaplan/Newsweek "How to Get Into College" guidebook.

There was more national publicity to come. A month after the release of the "hot schools" list, The Princeton Review announced that Rose-Hulman was among the nation's top five "most connected campuses." The news was posted on the Forbes magazine Web site as well as the online site for The Princeton Review.

In addition to the national publicity generated by the three announcements, the news is another indication that Rose-Hulman is becoming better known nationwide for the quality of its educational programs. The Kaplan/Newsweek "hot schools" list was based on input from high-school counselors, students, teachers and higher education officials. U.S. News determines its rankings based on survey responses from engineering deans and senior engineering faculty. The Princeton Review received information from 600 campuses and more than 100,000 college students.

No. 1 in U.S. News Survey Five Consecutive Years
The U.S. News survey asks engineering faculty to rank institutions they are familiar with on a scale of one to five, with five indicating distinguished status. Rose-Hulman's peer assessment score was 4.4, ranking the college as the best in the nation among schools that offer the bachelor's or master's as the highest degree in engineering.

The survey results were also used to rank engineering departments in the same category as the overall institutional ranking. Rose-Hulman's departments of chemical, civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering retained their top ranking. The magazine's survey did not include software engineering, biomedical engineering or engineering physics which are undergraduate degree programs also offered by Rose-Hulman.

"The results of the national survey are a wonderful testament to the quality of our programs and the outstanding abilities of our faculty, students, staff and alumni,” said Rose-Hulman President Samuel Hulbert.

The U.S. News rankings are published in the magazine's 2004 "America's Best Colleges" guidebook, which is available on newsstands until next August. The magazine's Web site also includes the ranking data.

U.S. News editors note that while the rankings are a useful resource in the college selection process, a prospective student should not make a college choice solely on a school's ranking. Hulbert agreed that high-school students should use the rankings as one of several useful sources of information.

"Visiting campuses is essential to making a good college choice," he stated. "Rose-Hulman's chances of enrolling students improve greatly after they've had the opportunity to talk with faculty and students, tour campus and learn about the successes of our graduates."

Rose-Hulman Dean of Admissions Chuck Howard said Rose-Hulman's No. 1 ranking has created more interest in the college from students living outside the Midwest.
"The ranking has increased national awareness about the quality of our programs. During just the summer months, we hosted over 800 students which compares to 1,600 students that visited during the entire previous recruiting season," he noted.

The U.S. News ranking influenced freshman Steven Shepson of Redlands, Calif. to choose Rose-Hulman, "The No. 1 ranking made me apply to the school," said Shepson, who also considered three California colleges that were also ranked by U.S. News. "Then, after being accepted, the rankings made me decide to visit the campus. That visit got me very interested in attending Rose-Hulman. It was the best decision for me," he said.

Kaplan/Newsweek Describes Rose-Hulman as a "Rising Star"
The "hot schools" article in the Sept. 1 issue of Newsweek described Rose-Hulman as a "rising star among tech peers like Caltech and MIT." Rose-Hulman tied with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh as the most-tech savvy school, according to the list.

"This year's hottest schools are rising stars that deserve special notice for their choice attributes which include innovative curricula," stated Seppy Basili, Kaplan Vice President and contributing editor to the guide.

"Our hope is to bring really good attention to places doing something well," Basili told the Terre Haute Tribune-Star.

Since the 'hot schools" list was created seven years ago, no college or university has been selected for the list more than once.

"Most Connected" Recognizes Rose-Hulman for Campus Technology
Rose-Hulman is the only Indiana higher-education institution named to the "Top 25 Most Connected Campuses" list released Oct. 2 by The Princeton Review. Rose-Hulman earned a fifth-place ranking. The list illustrates the depth and breadth of technology on American campuses.

In its selection of colleges for the list, The Princeton Review collected data from 600 campuses about student/computer ratio, wireless access on campus, and the breadth of the computer science curriculum.

The Princeton Review is a New York City-based company known for its test preparation courses, admissions and education services, and books. Rose-Hulman has been included repeatedly in The Princeton Review's annual "The Best 351 Colleges" publication.

"In the past two years, Rose-Hulman has made substantial improvements to its computing network and systems," Hulbert said.

Rose-Hulman has over 7,000 high-speed switched data ports and more than 40 wireless access points, according to Louis Turcotte, vice president for instructional administrative and information technology at Rose-Hulman. All faculty and students have laptops and the majority have wireless capabilities.

Rose-Hulman faculty this fall are also using 70 tablet personal computers and 85 iPAQ pocket computers, donated by Hewlett-Packard Company, to develop new teaching methods utilizing the latest in mobile technologies.

"Rose-Hulman has been a leader in computer-aided instruction since the 1980s when our faculty pioneered the use of computer algebra systems to improve mathematics education," Hulbert stated. "In 1995, Rose-Hulman was one of the first colleges to require all students to own a laptop computer."

This fall, a new software engineering degree program was launched and uses new facilities created by a $1.8 million project that remodeled the old Moench Hall Auditorium location into new space for the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.