Forbes Rankings: Caltech #2

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
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<p>Saw this thread over at the Princeton forum...</p>

<p>I think this is the highest ranking that Caltech's ever gotten (not that any of us care about it...). Well, besides Nobel Prizes per instructor. :D</p>

<p>[Woohoo![/url</a>]</p>

<p>If you look on the [url="<a href="http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/08/13/college-university-rankings-oped-college08-cx_rv_mn_0813intro.html%22%5Dmain"&gt;http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/08/13/college-university-rankings-oped-college08-cx_rv_mn_0813intro.html"]main&lt;/a> page](<a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/94/opinions_college08_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html%22%5DWoohoo!%5B/url"&gt;http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/94/opinions_college08_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html), I guess you can see the methodology behind the ranking. I guess we won mainly because of aforementioned Nobels and intrepid alumni.</p>

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<p>Caltech is a superb university and deserves consideration as the 2nd best in the nation, but I wouldn't go around celebrating it's rank in the FORBES ranking...quite possibly the least accurate ranking ever made.</p>

3

<p>The ranking's only been published for three days, give or take (yay +8 GMT timezone). </p>

<p>Quick to judge? :D</p>

<p>(Granted, I'm not a fan of Forbes' reporting either...)</p>

4

<p>CWalker is definitely not quick to judge in this case... look at the methodology.</p>

<p>"They based 25% of the rankings on 7 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25% depends on how many of the school's alumni, adjusted for enrollment, are listed among the notable people in Who's Who in America."</p>

<p>We don't even really use RateMyProfessors at Caltech, we use TQFRs. And that accounts for one quarter of our ranking! Also, Who's Who In America isn't a much better metric. So basically half of the ranking methodology is crap.</p>

<p><em>waves at CWalker</em> you are such a night owl dude... I didn't know you were on CC though.</p>