<p>THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IS RANKED 15TH IN THE WORLD'S BEST COLLEGES!!</p>
<p>As an avid visitor of the lists of national college rankings by USNWR and Forbes, it has never crossed my mind to check out the world university rankings . . . until now. It came as a huge shock to me (not that it should because U-M is pretty amazing) when I realized that the University of Michigan was ranked fifteenth by the USNWR on the list of the 400 top universities in the world. Falling in step behind Duke, U-M is ranked higher than three ivy league universities, John Hopkins, Berkeley, Washu, Northwestern, and Rice (among many more). I just noticed this, and could not wait to share what I consider to be a big find to the CC community. I'm sure many of you already know this, but for those that don't: we have another reason to be proud to be a wolverine. As a future wolverine (move-in tomorrow!), I cannot help but feel an even stronger sense of accomplishment for having been admitted into this great university!</p>
<p>Go blue!</p>
<p>It’s awesome, I remember reading that a while back.
But does anyone know why that is? I haven’t actually looked into the specific differences in methodologies between the world rankings & US rankings, and I believe umich is ranked 29 on the US rankings. More weight placed on research possibly in the world rankings?</p>
<p>Less weight placed on getting as many people to apply as possible to lower your acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I’ve linked this before, but the USNWR “rankings” are somewhat of a joke–they manipulate the methodology every year so that #9 one year can be #17 the next year with NO change in the university. The USNWR ratings also are skewed heavily toward private instutitions, thus a large public university like UM takes a hit in their rankings.</p>
<p>…but don’t take my word for it. The then President of Stanford University, Gerhard Casper, wrote a letter to then editor of USNWR James Fallows, questioning the conclusions that US News & World Report came to. The exert from his letter of interest to UM students/alumni is as follows:</p>
<pre><code> "I am extremely skeptical that the quality of a university - any more than the quality of a magazine - can be measured statistically. However, even if it can, the producers of the U.S. News rankings remain far from discovering the method. Let me offer as prima facie evidence two great public universities: the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of California-Berkeley. These clearly are among the very best universities in America - one could make a strong argument for either in the top half-dozen. Yet, in the last three years, the U.S. News formula has assigned them ranks that lead many readers to infer that they are second rate: Michigan 21-24-24, and Berkeley 23-26-27. "
</code></pre>
<p>The entire letter can be read here:</p>
<p>[Criticism</a> of College Rankings - September 23, 1996](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html]Criticism”>Criticism of College Rankings - September 23, 1996)</p>
<p>^^haha that’s pretty awesome. I’ve always thought that Stanford would be my favorite school out of HYPSM. Seems like their (then) President isn’t nearly as biased as you would think a President of a school would be.</p>