<p>The National Research Council measures the quality of academic programs at American universities. It employs an elaborate well-considered mechanism to evaluate these programs. As with any rating system, one might carp about this or that weight assigned to its two variables, “scholarly quality of program faculty,” and “effectiveness in educating research scholars/scientists.” </p>
<p>These parameters do not judge selectivity, what per cent of alumni donate, or the host of other non-academic variables utilized by USNWR that distort its rankings, nor which school has the “best food” or “best parties” or “best dorms” or even, directly, “best facilities.” Importantly, not all institutions qualify to participate in this survey, and its focus is on doctoral programs. Implicit is the concept that strong graduate programs are reflected in the quality of faculty and research, although not necessarily by teaching, in one’s college education. No one, of course, has been able to quantify teaching quality, so often in the eye of the beholder and transinstitutionally to this point immeasurable.</p>
<p>In an effort to provide a meaningful scale on which to quantify universities, these data are collated in a straight-forward manner to measure the excellence of universities by focusing on those that are strongest in the greatest number of areas. The programs covered by the NRC range from materials science to pharmacology to music to French. In all, 41 academic areas are rated. By assigning points in an inverse scale to the top 10 institutions in each area, and then totalling them, the following rankings ensue. </p>
<p>The resulting Academic Quality Index is another guide, undiluted by extraneous factors, to assess the strength of these institutions. </p>
<p>There are few surprises, although the overwhelming strength of the California state system, and particularly its flagship, Berkeley is apparent. The Ivies are the strongest conference, although the league suffers from the relatively low contribution of Brown and the fact that Dartmouth does not appear toward the top of any rankings, and may not even qualify to do so under NRC criteria. Especially because of the California membership, including the private Stanford, but also due to Washington’s and Arizona’s academic quality, the Pacific 10 conference is very well rated and challenges the Ivy League. Other public universities, particularly in the Big 10, and especially Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, do well although the Big 10’s private Northwestern lags behind. MIT and Cal Tech, despite truncated offerings in the humanities or social sciences, nevertheless rank highly. </p>
<p>Some schools that have attained higher visibility in polls like the USNWR’s through the selective use of merit scholarships, Washington U in St. Louis as a prime example, are well out of the running. Those and similar institutions simply do not have courses of study that are strong academically, although they may be fine places to go for other reasons, such as location or perceived prestige or the amorphous “feel” one receives on a campus visit. Of course, liberal arts colleges are not included and the AQI should not be read as discounting the quality of such schools that rely on their intimate environment and fine teachers to attract a qualified student body.</p>
<p>In short, the AQI is a tool, and an imperfect one, as are all the measuring sticks thrust into the apparently consuming question of what schools are “best.” That said, here are the AQI rankings, with the number of times the institution has the nation’s strongest program in parentheses:</p>
<li> University of California at Berkeley 224 (2)</li>
<li> Stanford 187 (6)</li>
<li> Harvard 182 (5)</li>
<li> Massachusetts Institute of Technology 166 (6)</li>
<li> Princeton 141 (2)</li>
<li> Yale 130 (6)</li>
<li> University of Chicago 97 (2)</li>
<li> Cornell 87</li>
<li> California Institute of Technology 85 (3)</li>
<li>University of Michigan 76 (1)<br></li>
<li>Columbia 68 (1)</li>
<li>University of California at San Diego 66 (2)</li>
<li>Duke 59 </li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania 49</li>
<li>University of Wisconsin 49<br></li>
<li>University of California at Los Angeles 46</li>
<li>University of California at San Francisco 44 (1) *</li>
<li>University of Illinois 44</li>
<li>University of Washington 39</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University 31</li>
</ol>
<p>on the cusp: Minnesota, Virginia, Northwestern, and Texas</p>
<p>Minnesota (Chemical Engineering) , NYU (Art History), Georgia Tech (Industrial Engineering), and Penn State (Geography) have number one ranked programs in the cited areas, but do not have sufficient strength in other disciplines to crack the top 20.</p>
<p>*UCSF is a component of the California system that specializes in training for health care professionals </p>
<p>This analysis is copyrighted 2007 by its author.</p>