<p>I’m certainly not saying UT CAN’T become a UC Berkeley in 20 years or so, but that’s not the point because I’m talking about UT as it is right now. </p>
<p>Actually, the set of universities that I grouped together is a combination of ranks that I’ve seen. Yes, while the ranking does look a bit like USN, but the order of public universities is still relatively the same. And I’ll be the first one to tell you that I also believe public universities are underrated by USN (which is one of my biggest complaint), but UT is certainly not the 2nd tier when you look at the international ranks. In the most prominent international ranks I’ve read, UT is ranked 38 (Academic Ranking of World Universities) and 27 (Newsweek International) and certainly not 5-15 as you claim. The only 2 schools in 5-15 is UC Berkeley and UM-Ann Arbor. U of Va’s rank just absolutely sucks internationally for its poor reputation (which is considered) internationally, but it is also consistently ranked up there in the US ranks (not just USN), so I felt it was fair to include U of Va. As for UCLA, while I agree UCLA is a shade below Berkeley, but I didn’t feel it was fair to place UCLA in the 2nd tier as UCLA is also clearly superior to them. In the end, I gave UCLA the 1st tier because it’s general rank is closer to the 1st tier than the 2nd tier. </p>
<p>After you get past the elite 1st tier in the international ranks, you consistently see the same set of schools ranked somewhere between 15-25 internationally and those universities compose of UW-Madison and defitnitely UW-Seattle (why you claim it’s not in the same level is beyond me. UW is one of the nation’s best research universities and is consistently one of the top 5 most cited school. Look at Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, which is more credible than USN.), UIUC, UCSD. From my memory alone, I remember UW Madison is 17, UW-Seattle is 16, UIUC is 26, and I don’t remember UCSD. While there may be a slight disparity of the ranks with Newsweek, but they generally still fall within the same categories and range.</p>
<p>Here comes the 3rd tier. Now, looking at the group I placed UT Austin with (U of F, Penn State, UM-College Park), UT Austin does seem a bit too strong for this tier, but like UCLA where it was stuck between 2 tiers, I had to push Austin to the tier that it’s more generally ranked closer to. That tier is usually the 30s-50s internationally (a list of ranks I’ve seen include 39, 38, 27, 24).
This list consisted of UC-Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, U of F, Penn State, and definitely UM-College Park (UM is always 1-3 ranks away). So yes, UT is better and in reality more in between the 2nd and 3rd tier I’ve created, but I pushed UT slightly toward the 3rd tier because ranks in the 24-40 area is still a shade below the 15-25 represented in the 2nd tier.</p>