<p>I was wondering and there is a lot of talk about American Colleges. What are opinions and thoughts about international colleges.. meaning outside of the US. Maybe like Top 10 or Top 5 .</p>
<p>Mine would be:
1)Cambridge-UK
2)Oxford-UK
3)University of Toronto-Canada
4)Tokyo University-Japan
5)University of British Columbia- Canada</p>
<p>Just my perspective. I have limited understanding of European colleges but yea thats what i feel. What do you guys think. Any opinions? Thanks</p>
<ol>
<li>McGill</li>
<li>NUS (National U of Singapore)</li>
<li>Peking University</li>
<li>Tsinghua University</li>
<li>Korea University</li>
</ol>
<p>Honorable mention to the IIMs and IITs which arguably have the lowest acceptance rates in the world, but aren't colleges.</p>
<p>One of the few world-dominating aspects of America which it has not (yet) screwed up is complete domination of academia. And when you expand the category to English-speaking universities, well, the dominance is pretty stark. And awesome.</p>
<p>I am also quite confident in the ability of America and the Anglosphere to hold onto this advantage for the foreseeable future. Why? Because universities are glacial to change.</p>
<p>Here's a thought exercise:</p>
<p>What were the best universities in the country in 1908?
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc</p>
<p>What were the biggest companies in 1908?
AT&T, IBM, Standard Oil, Ford, GM, etc</p>
<p>Now what happened to those biggest companies by 2008? Half of them dropped off the list, either being succeeded by new companies or collapsing in their own right. AT&T was broken up and bought in 2005 by one of its own "Baby Bells," IBM is a shadow of its former self, Standard Oil was broken up, GM and Ford are struggling to survive, and new companies like Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Google have sprouted up.</p>
<p>Yet what are the best universities in the United States in 2008?
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.</p>
<p>Universities have done a nice job of isolating themselves from change on earth.</p>
<p>ilovebagels.. no offense but Canadian universities such as U of T and UBC are better than McGill.. this is not as subjective as you think. Every single ranking points to that. ONLY thing Mcgill has on those schools is international prestige. You would be hard pressed to compare McGill to u of T and UBC and declare Mcgill as superior university. It's not your fault. A lot of internationals think McGill is the best Canadian University which is very very untrue.</p>
<p>I just said it to say it! I know that no university beats Harvard in name recognition (though Oxbridge is only a small step behind). I honestly despise comparisons like 'McGill is the Harvard of the North.' No it's not! It's McGill: A pretty good uni is Canada. Cambridge is Cambridge and Harvard is Harvard (it just so happens that the atter was founded by a member of the former).</p>
<ol>
<li>Oxford</li>
<li>Cambridge</li>
<li>The Sorbonne</li>
<li>University of Glasgow</li>
<li>University of Edinburgh</li>
<li>St. Andrew's University</li>
<li>McGill</li>
<li>Queen's University</li>
<li>University of British Columbia</li>
<li>University of Toronto</li>
</ol>
<p>(rankings inspired by my hazy recollections of searching for international colleges before deciding to stay in the U.S.)</p>
<p>What were the best universities in the country in 1908?
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc</p>
<p>What were the biggest companies in 1908?
AT&T, IBM, Standard Oil, Ford, GM, etc</p>
<p>Now what happened to those biggest companies by 2008? Half of them dropped off the list, either being succeeded by new companies or collapsing in their own right. AT&T was broken up and bought in 2005 by one of its own "Baby Bells," IBM is a shadow of its former self, Standard Oil was broken up, GM and Ford are struggling to survive, and new companies like Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Google have sprouted up.</p>
<p>Yet what are the best universities in the United States in 2008?
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.</p>
<p>Universities have done a nice job of isolating themselves from change on earth.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>While i agree that HYP has continued and will continue the test of time for the forseeable future, actually if you take a look at the largest stocks by market cap (US markets), AT&T, IBM and Exxon (formerly a part of Standard Oil) all make it in the top 10... to continue the analogy a step further, while firms such as MSFT and GOOG have emerged into the top ranks, so have schools such as Stanford and Caltech (which were both merely 17 years old in 1908)...</p>
<p>k, some Canadian University Lessons for Everyone!!!</p>
<p>University of Toronto is our Overall BEST university
University of British Columbia is Second
McGill is Third... it is NOT the Harvard of the North. Thats ridiculous
Queen's is arguably our fourth.</p>
<p>Shad Faraz, would you be kind enough to provide substantial evidence that U of T and UBC are actually 'better' (whatever that means) than McGill? You must have a valid (read: objective, non-personal) reason to be that certain of that ranking.</p>