The best universities in the world

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Freeza Under The Shower said:
It's also way too easy to publish articles that are actually completely meaningless because they have no theory in them. Say, "the correlation between posting on neogaf and being a shitheel". You get an answer alright, but it's without a process of expected explanations / predictions / hypothesis (theory), which is therefore junk information. It tells you nothing. Yet these "bullshit publications" (my words, not someone else's) do count towards credibility.
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...hardly, because they are not cited that often.

A real problem in this vain though is that review articles tend to get massively overcited, whereas original research is often largely ignored.
 
UnemployedVillain said:
How are these American slanted just because American (and Chinese) schools dominate in those categories? There's nothing inherent to them that is biased. "Working towards winning awards and medals is something that is ingrained in US and Chinese (as well as a few other Asian universities)"? That sounds like something you literally made up to justify the perceived slant, because I can assure you, the top universities in the US are more focused on research, which you claim is more of a European focus.
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I don't know what to say, other than that I didn't make it up and this is simply how it is. Acquiring accolades has long been an American thing and is now something that Chinese universities are heavily pushing towards. Most of Europe has not really participated in this, because they have less of a history of competitive funding acquisition or job insecurity. Of course not all of these awards are something you have to actively work towards.

I'll say in favor of CWUR that they have a rather even split, 10 US awards versus 7 European awards. Most of them Scandinavian though. In any case a country like Germany doing poorly in this list could simply be an absence of German awards.
 
SgtCobra said:
113, oh well.
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High five, dude. What are you studying?

The Lamp said:
What are you talking about? So many people go to the US to study medicine just for the prestige.
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You think a lot of people from western europe actually travel to the US to get their medical degree? Lol.
Temporary internships, fellowships and research positions in the US, maybe. That's how I got my ass planted at Harvard for a bit.

But beyond that? I strongly doubt it, unless you think that a sub single digit percentage of students is 'so many'.
 
Given that the US is basically the main science hub of the world the ranking makes sense for the methodology they used. Although there is a certain inherent bias they should have addressed.
Thatswhy I strongly disagree that their methodology determines the "best" universities. Especially the criteria they used for Quality of Education and Quality of Faculty is, in my opinion, not suited to determine these things.
 
Meh, 347 and 104.
As others have said, the methodology is a bit biased though IMO.
Not that they have much choice, you can't really account for the specifics of each country when it comes to the form of education used in the country.
 
Went to OU (Oklahoma) for both bachelor's and master's and woooo it's not as low as I figured. Also gives me room for improvement when I go for the phd.
 
These lists are nothing more than an indicator due to the parameters being problematic. Only 2/8 are adjusted for size which is hugely important.

Still helpful though. It should be noted that there are multiple lists all with slightly different results. For the most part you can work out if a college/university is good without using lists like this though. Reputation usually says a lot.

Edit: Mine is #187. I'm doing a semester abroad at William and Mary though, that feels very low for them.
 
KimiNewt said:
Universities in the top 100 by country:

USA - 55
United Kingdom - 7
Japan - 6
France - 4
Switzerland - 4
Australia - 3
Canada - 3
Israel - 3
China - 2
Germany - 2
Netherlands - 2
Belgium - 1
Denmark - 1
Italy - 1
Norway - 1
Russia - 1
Singapore - 1
South Korea - 1
Sweden - 1
Taiwan - 1

My university is 137th, but at least we're 52nd in "Quality of Education".
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These numbers have virtually no meaning like this. They should be percentages of total universities in each country. For example, the US has 4726 Universities/Colleges, where's the UK has 130.
 
spekkeh said:
I don't know what to say, other than that I didn't make it up and this is simply how it is. Acquiring accolades has long been an American thing and is now something that Chinese universities are heavily pushing towards. Most of Europe has not really participated in this, because they have less of a history of competitive funding acquisition or job insecurity. Of course not all of these awards are something you have to actively work towards.

I'll say in favor of CWUR that they have a rather even split, 10 US awards versus 7 European awards. Most of them Scandinavian though. In any case a country like Germany doing poorly in this list could simply be an absence of German awards.
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The difference is that research in Germany or other European countries aren't focused primarily on the universities in the way it does in the USA. Germany for example has the Fraunhofer Society for applied science and engineering and Max Planck Society for basic science.
 
hockeypuck said:
Uh, are you talking about obtaining an M.D. degree, or residency/fellowship? I somehow doubt bright people from Europe are traveling overseas just to obtain an M.D. when they could easily get the equivalent at home for cheaper. It makes sense to travel to the U.S. to work at a fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering or MD Anderson. It doesn't make sense to pay for Yale School of Medicine when getting a degree from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden is just as good.

You are overestimating the influence of a medical school pedigree, when the quality of postgraduate residency/fellowship is far more important. Where you graduated from matters much less than you think in terms of getting a competitive residency spot.



And Washington? Wha? Even if you're referring to WashU in St. Louis, I wouldn't equate it to "world is your oyster." Numbers from standardized tests and experience from sub-internships matter much more. Hell, I wouldn't even extend that claim to a Harvard Medical School graduate. Still gotta prove yourself taking the exact same test every other American allopathic medical student takes.
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Actually, getting an MD from outside of the USA puts you at a huge disadvantage for getting a residency (and subsequently fellowship) in the USA. So in that sense, yes all USA MDs are pretty much superior to any international ones. It's less about "pedigree" and more about residencies preferring students from the USA schools much more heavily.

That doesn't mean there aren't many international grads that are US doctors, just relatively few. And it has gotten a lot harder than it was in the past few decades to be an international medical school graduate and train in the USA.
 
Graduated from #25 (UW Madison). I'm pretty sure that means I'm 25 times smarter than everyone else.

Being back in school now, I can't believe how much I wasted that experience. Wish I could go back and, among many other things, major in something that's actually useful and that I could be proud of. On the one hand I have a degree from UW Madison. On the other hand........yeah. =/ Small chance I'll be going back there to finish a degree in electrical engineering.
 
Hoo-doo said:
High five, dude. What are you studying?



You think a lot of people from western europe actually travel to the US to get their medical degree? Lol.
Temporary internships, fellowships and research positions in the US, maybe. That's how I got my ass planted at Harvard for a bit.

But beyond that? I strongly doubt it, unless you think that a sub single digit percentage of students is 'so many'.
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Maybe it's because they can't get into Harvard because their CV isn't up to par.

Just a thought.
 
Lamel said:
Actually, getting an MD from outside of the USA puts you at a huge disadvantage for getting a residency (and subsequently fellowship) in the USA. So in that sense, yes all USA MDs are pretty much superior to any international ones. It's less about "pedigree" and more about residencies preferring students from the USA schools much more heavily.

That doesn't mean there aren't many international grads that are US doctors, just relatively few. And it has gotten a lot harder than it was in the past few decades to be an international medical school graduate and train in the USA.
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That is more dependent on specialty. There are going to be little to no international medical graduates (IMG) in dermatology residencies. This is the original quote I took issue with:
The Lamp said:
What are you talking about? So many people go to the US to study medicine just for the prestige.
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In the context of this thread, regarding universities, that statement is bogus. Hardly anyone outside the U.S. should be considering to apply for a U.S. medical school, and the main reason is cost. It makes sense that only 1,300 foreign applicants applied in 2010, with 171 matriculating (for 20,000 spots). That's a 13% acceptance rate. IMG performance in the 2015 Match for U.S. residencies, on the other hand, was 50% successful match for first-year positions by non-U.S. citizen IMG applicants. That doesn't include matches for mid-residency openings.

Even if your chances of getting a residency spot is lower as an IMG than as a U.S. med school grad, it's still higher than getting an acceptance into a U.S. med school.
 
Kieli said:
Maybe it's because they can't get into Harvard because their CV isn't up to par.

Just a thought.
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The vast, vast majority of dutch med students are honestly never even considering to get their MD in the US unless they want to move there permanently for some reason. The thought doesn't even enter the equation.
Like I said, just opportunistic internships or research periods. But even those are really not all that special.

Over here people generally don't give a damn what university you got your medical degree from because all dutch universities are up to a high standard anyway. It's all about how you did, the stuff you did on the side, the experience you have and the local connections you have made.
And in that case, i'd say people who went to study in the US for six years are actually somewhat at a disadvantage when they want to enter certain specialties back in the Netherlands, despite their degree from a prestigious institution.
 
QUOTEE=Timbuktu;212640174]It always seems that Americans have a lot more emotional attachment to their universities than over here in the UK.[/QUOTE]

For some cities, their entire economy is based on the success of their local university. Throw on top of that college sports and that right there explains 90% of the emotions US citizens have for their university of choice.

Also, anytime we're "#1" at something, we like to make sure everyone knows.
 
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