kittel said:
Having been to the highest ranking school and one in the lower tier of OP's list, I'd say it's true
Metrics used can be debatable, though
Yeah, metrics area little fuzzy. By research alone in economics, psychology, Computer Science, Math, Physics, Biology, Biomedical Engineeering, and Chemical Engineering (particularly CSci, Physics, and ChemE), the University of Minnesota should probably be in the top 20, if not the top 10 or top 5 (I believe it's the #2 or #3 research institution in the country)
There are of course a lot of people who graduate with various management and marketing degrees though, which probably brings it down, hence why you see similar universities like Madison and Chicago ranked higher.
And what the hell is the University of Florida ranked so high for?