Strong Engineering and Liberal Arts Education:

To maximize your probability of becoming a globally competitive engineer, it is necessary to acquire a strong liberal arts education in conjunction with a strong engineering education. Valpo's College of Engineering is committed to preparing you to be a distinctive engineering who is well-rounded and can effectively communicate your designs and ideas.

Quality of Faculty:

All full-time engineering teaching faculty have earned a Ph.D. in their respective fields. (Faculty have Ph.D.s from U. of Toledo, U. of Texas-Austin, New Mexico State U., Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa State, U. New South Wales, Purdue, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, U. of Illinois, and U of California.) The majority of faculty have professional engineering registration in one or more states.

Personal Faculty Attention:

Nearly all courses are taught by full-time faculty. The use of part-time faculty is minimal. There are no teaching assistants! The class sizes are small, typically less than 30:1 for lower-division courses, and typically less than 20:1 for upper-division courses.

Accreditation:

VU is the only Lutheran undergraduate engineering program in North America whose four traditional degree programs (i.e., civil, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering) are accredited by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET).

Placement of Graduates:

During the 1999-2000 academic year through 2006-2007 our students have enjoyed placement rates of 100%, 91%, 93%, 89%, 93%, 95%, 100%, and 100% respectively. (These placement rates were computed based on our graduated students being either employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation.) Our average overall placement rate for the past eight (8) years is 95%.

Hesse Learning Resource and Assessment Center:

The VU College of Engineering established the Hesse Learning Resource and Assessment Center (LRAC). This in-house center promotes recruitment, retention, and the success of our engineering students. It provides peer tutoring in math, physics, and engineering; proofreading of technical papers; providing resources on study skills; calculus help sessions; and some academic counseling.

Affordability:

The College of Engineering is affordable compared to other private and public institutions based on the average student financial aid award. In U.S. News & World Report , Valpo was named “best value” among Midwestern, master's-level institutions for the second consecutive year. The University has been ranked first or second in each of the past four years.

Academic Reputation:

U. S. News and World Report ranks Valpo #21 (i.e., Top 15%) among “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs” in the country where the highest degree is a bachelor's or master's degree. Valparaiso's CoE degree programs were all highly rated: civil, tied for 12 th ; computer, tied for 6 th ; electrical, tied for 13 th ; and mechanical, tied for 13 th .

  For the 16th consecutive year, Valpo has been identified as one of the Midwest's top-ranked, master's-level universities (among 572) in the annual rankings prepared by U. S. News and World Report . The University is ranked #2 in academic quality, marking the fifth successive year it has been ranked first or second in its category. Valpo has ranked first or second in the Midwest for overall quality in 11 of the past 12 years. The rankings appear in the book America's Best Colleges .

  Valparaiso University is among the institutions featured in The Best 351 Colleges , published by the Princeton Review, and among the institutions featured in The Unofficial, Unbiased Guide to the 328 Most Interesting Colleges , compiled by Kaplan Publishing .