The Princeton Review has released a list of the top 20 graduate engineering programs in the nation. The Princeton Review releases rankings of academic programs such as law schools, medical schools and colleges each year.

This is the first time graduate engineering programs have been ranked, and N.C. State engineering is not on the list.

Joel Trussell, director of graduate programs for electrical and computer engineering, said he is not surprised that the University is absent from this list.

“I am probably not surprised we didn’t show up on that list because of previous rankings we have had in the past,” he said. “I wouldn’t have seen a reason to suspect we would suddenly appear on this. Do we want to appear on it? Absolutely.”

The graduate engineering program is ranked in the U.S. News & World Report, according to Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering.

As of last June, Martin-Vega is the dean of the College of Engineering.

“If you look at all graduate schools for engineering in both public and private, our college is ranked around 33 or 34, so we would not appear in the top 20 for the U.S. News & World Report either,” he said.

He indicated that he is not satisfied with their current ranking.

“We know where we are right now,” Martin-Vega said. “I don’t know if I’m satisfied with where we are. Our goal is definitely to be among the top 10 public colleges of engineering in the next four to five years.”

David Kaber, associate professor in industrial engineering, said the industrial engineering college is ranked between 12 and 14 in the U.S. News & World Report.

“The review that we concentrate on most is U.S. News & World Report, and I’m not exactly sure what the college ranking is this year,” Kaber said. “Many of the departments within the College of Engineering are ranked by the U.S. News & World Report and are ranked higher.”

According to the Princeton Review’s Web site, graduate engineering programs received rankings based on several quantitative factors. Among those are graduate record examination scores, undergraduate GPA, percentage of applicants accepted and percentage of applicants who are top undergraduate students.

For Martin-Vega, achieving a top-10 ranking is what he said brought him here.

“Our goal is certainly to become one of the top 10 public research colleges of engineering,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that. That’s one of my main motivations to come here — to see if we could come into that group.”

The Princeton Review selected the University of California, Santa Barbara as the top school for graduate engineering programs. UCSB is followed by two schools in the South East — Duke University and the University of Virginia.

As of spring 2006, the College of Engineering is the largest at the University, with more than 5,000 undergraduates and 1,600 graduate students, according to the Registration and Records Web site. It is third among all U.S. engineering colleges in total degrees awarded.

The site also states the College of Engineering offers 19 MS and 16 PhD degree programs and 11 degree-granting departments. Graduate distance education is also available.

The engineering department as a whole is ranked 33 in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. Statistics for individual colleges within the engineering graduate school department were not available.

The University appeared on the Princeton Review’s Best Southeastern Colleges list, America’s Best Value College list and Colleges with a Conscience list.