Princeton and the 2010 National Research Council (NRC) Rankings (news item)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>The National Research Council has just released its long overdue rankings of graduate programs at major U.S. universities. The last report was fifteen years ago. At that time, Princeton's programs ranked extremely well nationally and they rank even higher in this new study.</p>

<p>The NRC rankings have been considered the "gold standard" of academic department rankings and scholars had been anxiously awaiting this new report. Another report will not be done for another ten years or so.</p>

<p>I present this analysis because many think of Princeton primarily as an undergraduate institution. While it certainly excels in undergraduate education, it's also a powerful international research institution in both the humanities and the sciences. Though smaller than many of its peers, Princeton focuses on core disciplines and theoretical research and that focus has made it a leader in many fields. The benefit of strong graduate programs to undergraduates may be smaller at some institutions but at Princeton there is no separate graduate faculty. The professors who have made Princeton's graduate programs famous also teach undergraduates.</p>

<p>METHODOLOGY</p>

<p>The last NRC study attempted to rank graduate institutions on a simple numerical scale. Because of the complaints of many academics who felt that no such simplified ranking could be accurate, the new study presents ranges of 'probable' rankings. In other words, instead of identifying a particular institution as having the top history department in the country, the new study will show that this particular institution is likely to fall within a range of 1 to 4 or 1 to 10. Other institutions might have a range ranking of 6 to 15 or 7 to 12.</p>

<p>All of this is somewhat confusing and there have been many critics of the new system.
Nevertheless--and certainly running counter to the goal of the creators of the new NRC system--a number of websites have already converted these range rankings into simple ordinal rankings. By combining the two major elements of "quality" as measured by the NRC (one known as the "R" ranking and the other known as the "S" ranking) one website has simplified the system significantly.</p>

<p>Find</a> the Graduate School That's Right for You — PhDs.org Graduate School Guide </p>

<p>The above website allows the user to select for the "quality" assessment as the sole measurement and then produce an ordinal ranking. Specifically, it averages the 'R' and 'S' rankings over all surveyed schools. (Under "NRC Quality Measure" be sure to click "more options" and then set both ranking techniques to '5' to give them the highest importance and produce a ranking based solely on the average of the two.) While there are other factors that were measured and are available for ranking purposes, the 'R' and 'S' program quality assessments come closest to measuring the strength of academic departments.</p>

<p>Using this tool, I offer the following analysis. Others may insist that different variables are more important.</p>

<p>Of all the fields surveyed by the NRC, I've selected for analysis only those at the core of the arts and sciences and have left out those primarily related to medical education in hospitals or specialized fields such as agriculture, public affairs, communication or specific area studies. Even within the arts and sciences I've left out some programs that have not traditionally been in this 'core'. In some, Princeton does poorly. In others, it does extremely well.</p>

<p>These then, are the academic fields I've included from the NRC analysis: Classics, Comparative Literature, English, French, German, Spanish, History, Art/Architecture/Archeology, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biochemistry, Biology, Ecology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Applied Math, Pure Math, Astronomy/Astrophysics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geology/Geophysics, Physics, Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology. These cover the major categories of the NRC survey known as Arts & Humanities, Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences/Math and Social and Behavioral Sciences.</p>

<p>Based on the quality assessment rankings in the combination of these disciplines I've scored based on the following system. If a school had an appearance in the top 20, it was given a sub-score for that discipline equal to 21 minus its rank. Thus, a school ranked number 1 would receive a sub-score of 20 for that discipline. A school ranked 20th would receive a sub-score of 1. A school not appearing in the top 20 would receive a sub-score of zero. In a small number of cases, two separate departments within the same university would both be included in the top 20 ranking. For example, Princeton's History department as well as its History of Science department both rank in this range. In these limited cases, I've represented that school with the department having the highest score. I summed the sub-scores and then converted the top combined score to 100 with all other scores taken as a percentage of the top score. The result of that scoring system is as follows.</p>

<p>NRC Quality Assessment Rankings
For 32 Core Arts & Sciences Programs</p>

<p>100---Harvard</p>

<p>97.1--Princeton</p>

<p>89.5--Berkeley
86.8--Stanford</p>

<p>--- gap---</p>

<p>62.0--Yale
61.8--Columbia
61.5--MIT</p>

<p>--- gap---</p>

<p>48.6--U. of Chicago
47.3--U. of Michigan
42.6--Cal Tech</p>

<p>39.1--UCLA
38.9--Duke
36.7--Penn
35.4--NYU
34.1--Penn State
32.7--Brown</p>

<p>26.4--Northwestern
25.3--Cornell
24.4--UNC Chapel Hill
24.2--UT at Austin</p>

<hr>

<p>Of the 32 fields, the following schools had the given number of programs ranked in the top 20 of all universities:</p>

<p>NRC Quality Assessment Rankings
For 32 Core Arts & Sciences Programs
(number of top 20 programs out of 32)</p>

<p>27----Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley</p>

<p>24----Columbia, Yale</p>

<p>21----U. of Michigan</p>

<p>19----UCLA</p>

<p>18----MIT, U. of Chicago</p>

<p>17----Duke, Penn</p>

<p>16----Cornell</p>

<p>15----Penn State, UT at Austin</p>

<p>14----Brown</p>

<hr>

<p>Of the 32 fields, the following schools had the given number of programs ranked in the top 10 of all universities:</p>

<p>NRC Quality Assessment Rankings
For 32 Core Arts & Sciences Programs
(number of top 10 programs out of 32)</p>

<p>25----Harvard
24----Princeton
23----Berkeley
22----Stanford</p>

<p>---gap---</p>

<p>17----Yale
16----MIT
14----Columbia
13----U. of Michigan
12----
11----U. of Chicago
10----NYU
9-----Cal Tech, Duke
8-----Penn
7-----Brown, UCLA
6-----
5-----JHU, Penn State, UC Santa Barbara, U. of Wisconsin
4-----Cornell</p>

<hr>

<p>Of the 32 fields, the following schools had the given number of programs ranked in the top 5 of all universities:</p>

<p>NRC Quality Assessment Rankings
For 32 Core Arts & Sciences Programs
(number of top 5 programs out of 32)</p>

<p>19----Harvard
18----Princeton
17----Berkeley</p>

<p>---gap---</p>

<p>12----Stanford
11----MIT</p>

<p>---gap---</p>

<p>7----Columbia
6----U. of Chicago
5----Cal Tech, Duke, Yale
4----U. of Michigan
3----Brown, NYU, Penn State, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara</p>

<hr>

<p>Of the 32 fields, the following schools had the given number of programs ranked in the top 2 of all universities:</p>

<p>NRC Quality Assessment Rankings
For 32 Core Arts & Sciences Programs
(number of top 2 programs out of 32)</p>

<p>13----Harvard, Princeton</p>

<p>---gap---</p>

<p>7-----Stanford
6-----MIT
5-----
4-----Cal Tech, Berkeley
3-----
2-----Brown, Columbia, Duke, UCLA, U. of Chicago
1-----Indiana U., Penn State, Rutgers, UT Austin, UC San Diego, WUSTL, Yale</p>

<hr>

<p>Of Princeton's top rated programs, the following were in the top two:</p>

<p>Princeton's Humanities Programs Ranked in the Top Two in the Country</p>

<p>Comparative Literature
English
French
History
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology</p>

<p>Princeton's Science and Engineering Programs Ranked in the Top Two in the Country</p>

<p>Astronomy/Astrophysics
Computer Science
Ecology/Evolutionary Biology
Electrical Engineering
Math--Applied
Math--Pure</p>

<p>As I noted earlier, this is a very specific 'core arts and sciences' analysis. If specialized programs such as communication or health science programs that are hospital-based are included, Princeton's position in these rankings will be lower. Princeton has no hospital or its accompanying health science programs. Nor does it have a communications or agriculture program. I invite you to perform your own specialized analyses in these areas if you wish. </p>

<p>Other analyses of these data done by fellow CC'ers have come to essentially the same ranking. One slightly different but still very detailed approach appears in the following thread on the Graduate Students CC board:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1005239-fyi-nrc-rankings-out.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1005239-fyi-nrc-rankings-out.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The same schools dominate their rankings though the inclusion of agriculture, communications and hospital-based health science programs have boosted some other schools.</p>

<p>In a separate thread I'll provide the subject-specific quality rankings.
 </p>

2

<p>Here are the subject-specific NRC quality rankings combining the ‘R’ and ‘S’ scores. I’m listing only the top ten in each category.</p>

<p>CLASSICS</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Harvard
3—Columbia
4—Princeton
5—Duke
6—Penn
7—Berkeley
8—Berkeley (different department)
9—Columbia (different department)
10–U. of Michigan</p>

<p>COMPARATIVE LITERATURE</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—Stanford
4—Berkeley
5—U. of Maryland
6—Duke
7—Yale
8—Brown
9—Penn
10—NYU</p>

<p>ENGLISH</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Princeton
3—Stanford
4—Columbia
5—Yale
6—U. of Michigan
7—Vanderbilt
8—Cornell
9—Penn
10–U. of Wisconsin</p>

<p>FRENCH</p>

<p>1—Duke
2—Princeton
3—Yale
4—Penn
5—Vanderbilt
6—Harvard
7—U. of Wisconsin
8—Stanford
9—U. of Michigan
10–U. of Connecticut</p>

<p>GERMAN</p>

<p>1—U. of Chicago
2—Berkeley
3—U. of Minnesota
4—Indiana U.
5—Harvard
6—Columbia
7—Duke
8—NYU
9—Ohio State
10–UNC Chapel Hill</p>

<p>HISTORY</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—Princeton (different department)
4—JHU
5—U. of Chicago
6—Columbia
7—Harvard (different department)
8—Penn
9—Stanford
10–Berkeley</p>

<p>ART, ARCHIETECTURE AND ARCHEOLOGY</p>

<p>1—UCLA
2—Columbia
3—Berkeley
4—U. of Chicago
5—MIT
6—Yale
7—Harvard
8—NYU
9—Princeton
10–Columbia</p>

<p>MUSIC</p>

<p>1—UCLA
2—Indiana U.
3—Harvard
4—Indiana U (different department)
5—U. of Chicago
6—Princeton
7—Yale
8—UCLA
9—U. of Rochester
10–NYU</p>

<p>PHILOSOPHY</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Rutgers
3—U. of Michigan
4—Berkeley
5—NYU
6—U. of Chicago
7—MIT
8—Stanford
9—Columbia
10–Brown</p>

<p>RELIGION</p>

<p>1—Duke
2—U. of Chicago
3—UNC Chapel Hill
4—Notre Dame
5—Emory
6—Harvard
7—Brown
8—Princeton
9—Yale
10–Boston College</p>

<p>SPANISH</p>

<p>1—Yale
2—Brown
3—Penn State
4—NYU
5—UC Davis
6—UVA
7—Berkeley
8—Stanford
9—U. of Pittsburgh
10–Purdue</p>

<p>CHEMICAL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—Cal Tech
2—MIT
3—Berkeley
4—UC Santa Barbara
5—UT Austin
6—Princeton
7—U. of Minnesota
8—Stanford
9—U. of Michigan
10—U. of Wisconsin</p>

<p>CIVIL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—Berkeley
2—UT Austin
3—MIT
4—Princeton
5—Yale
6—Stanford
7—U. of Illinois Urbana
8—Georgia Tech
9—Purdue
10–Northwestern</p>

<p>ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Princeton
3—Harvard
4—UC Santa Barbara
5—U. of Illinois Urbana
6—Cal Tech
7—Georgia Tech
8—UCLA
9—U. of Michigan
10–MIT</p>

<p>MECHANICAL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—MIT
2—Stanford
3—Berkeley
4—U. of Michigan
5—Brown
6—Northwestern
7—UC Santa Barbara
8—Georgia Tech
9—Princeton
10–U. of Maryland</p>

<p>BIOCHEMISTRY</p>

<p>1—MIT
2—Stanford
3—Berkeley
4—UCSF
5—Harvard
6—UCSF (different department)
7—Yale
8—Cal Tech
9—Harvard
10–Berkeley (different department)</p>

<p>BIOLOGY</p>

<p>1—Cal Tech
2—UC San Diego
3—UC San Diego (different department)
4—Princeton
5—Rockefeller U.
6—Stanford
7—UCSF
8—Yale
9—Yale (different department)
10–Columbia</p>

<p>ECOLOGY & EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY</p>

<p>1—WUSTL
2—Princeton
3—Duke
4—Harvard
5—UC Davis
6—Indiana U.
7—U. of Chicago
8—Berkeley
9—UC Davis (different department)
10–Berkeley (different department)</p>

<p>GENETICS</p>

<p>1—MIT
2—Stanford
3—Berkeley
4—Columbia
5—Baylor
6—U. of Michigan
7—UNC Chapel Hill
8—Yale
9—JHU
10–U. of Washington</p>

<p>NEUROSCIENCE</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—MIT
3—Stanford
4—UC San Diego
5—UC San Diego (different department)
6—JHU
7—UCSF
8—Yale
9—Berkeley
10–Columbia</p>

<p>APPLIED MATHEMATICS</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Brown
3—UCLA
4—U. of Washington
5—Cornell
6—MIT
7—Northwestern
8—NYU
9—U. of Arizona
10–UC Davis</p>

<p>PURE MATHEMATICS</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—NYU
4—Berkeley
5—Stanford
6—MIT
7—Yale
8—Penn State
9—U. of Michigan
10–U. of Wisconsin</p>

<p>ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Cal Tech
3—Berkeley
4—MIT
5—Penn State
6—Harvard
7—U. of Chicago
8—JHU
9—U. of Washington
10–U. of Arizona</p>

<p>CHEMISTRY</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Berkeley
3—Cal Tech
4—Harvard (different department)
5—Northwestern
6—U. of Illinois
7—Stanford
8—MIT
9—Yale
10–Columbia</p>

<p>COMPUTER SCIENCE</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Princeton
3—MIT
4—Berkeley
5—Carnegie Mellon
6—Cornell
7—Harvard
8—UC Santa Barbara
9—Penn
10–UCLA</p>

<p>GEOLOGY & GEOSCIENCES</p>

<p>1—Columbia
2—Cal Tech
3—Harvard
4—Berkeley
5—Cal Tech
6—Cal Tech (different department)
7—Cal Tech (different department)
8—Stanford
9—Stanford (different department)
10–UC Irvine</p>

<p>PHYSICS</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Berkeley
3—MIT
4—Princeton
5—UC Santa Barbara
6—Cal Tech
7—U. of Chicago
8—Harvard (different department)
9—Cornell
10–U. of Illinois Urbana</p>

<p>ANTHROPOLOGY</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Penn State
3—U. of Michigan
4—Duke
5—U. of Arizona
6—Berkeley
7—UCLA
8—U. of Chicago
9—U. of Michigan (different department)
10–Penn</p>

<p>ECONOMICS</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—MIT
3—U. of Chicago
4—Princeton
5—Berkeley
6—Harvard (different department)
7—Stanford
8—Cal Tech
9—Yale
10–NYU</p>

<p>POLITICAL SCIENCE</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Stanford
3—Berkeley
4—U. of Michigan
5—Columbia
6—NYU
7—Yale
8—Duke
9—Princeton
10–UC San Diego</p>

<p>PSYCHOLOGY</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—Stanford
4—U. of Wisconsin
5—Yale
6—U. of Rochester
7—U. of Michigan
8—Brown
9—Columbia
10–UCLA</p>

<p>SOCIOLOGY</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Princeton
3—Harvard (different department)
4—Penn
5—Columbia
6—JHU
7—U. of Michigan
8—Penn State
9—UNC Chapel Hill
10–Duke</p>

3

<p>Nice analysis and summary.</p>

<p>Not intending to take the focus off Princeton, but I wonder what happened to Cal’s English and Electrical Engineering ranking?..two historically very strong grad programs.</p>

4

<p>I looked at the English program, because that surprised me, too.</p>

<p>Basically, there is a huge disparity between what they are calling the “regression”-based ranking, and what they call the “survey”-based ranking. On the regression-based ranking, Cal’s English program comes out at 5 or 6 nationally in a virtual tie with Yale, and just behind a virtual four-way tie for first. (Cal is ranked lower than Yale because on some days it could be as low as #17, but Yale would be unlikely to be ranked lower than #12.) On the survey-based ranking, it shows a very, very wide range of possible outcomes, with a bell-curve distribution centered on the mid-40s. So when the two get averaged, Cal drops out of the top 20.</p>

<p>I am not yet certain that I understand the two different rankings, but I think – and this is counter-intuitive – that the regression-based ranking most reflects actual reputation in the field, and the survey-based ranking is an attempt at ranking based on specific qualities people deem important without regard to the institution. That’s a huge oversimplification, I’m sure. To oversimplify further, I believe what these rankings say about Cal is that when you ask English professors and graduate students how best to measure the quality of an English program, and they say, effectively, “This, That, and the Other Thing, and a smidgen of What and How,” Cal doesn’t actually compare very well with other top programs. But when you ask them to rank actual programs, they uniformly put Cal or programs like it near the top.</p>

<p>The “survey” ranking is definitely weirder than the “regression” ranking, although they are not completely inconsistent. In the regression ranking, as noted, there is a tight group of four at the top – Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Stanford – followed fairly closely by Yale and Cal. The top 11 is rounded out by CUNY, Cornell, Wisconsin, Brown, and UCLA, which are closely grouped. In the “survey” ranking, there is still a virtual tie for first between Harvard and Princeton, with Stanford just behind, but then there is a significant gap and a group of four roughly equal – Michigan, Penn State, Penn, and Vanderbilt – followed by another roughly equal group consisting of Columbia, Yale, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Arizona State. Cal has a much bigger difference between its rankings in the two systems than any other institution I could identify.</p>

5

<p>Thank you, UCB.</p>

<p>The following may be helpful.</p>

<p>If the same ranking is calculated on the basis of just the regression analysis using the same 32 disciplines, Berkeley comes out on top. Other changes at the top don’t seem to be very significant.</p>

<p>NRC Quality Assessment Rankings
For 32 Core Arts & Sciences Programs
Based Solely on the Regression Analysis</p>

<p>100----Berkeley</p>

<p>96.6—Harvard</p>

<p>88.5—Princeton
81.5—Stanford</p>

<p>—gap—</p>

<p>63.0—Columbia</p>

<p>59.8—Yale
58.2—MIT
51.9—U. of Michigan
51.5—U. of Chicago
51.0—UCLA</p>

<p>40.6—UT Austin</p>

<p>38.8—NYU
36.3—Penn
35.2—Cal Tech
34.3—U. of Wisconsin
34.1—Duke
32.3—Cornell
30.0—UNC Chapel Hill</p>

<p>25.3—Brown
22.3—Northwestern
21.4—UC Sandiego
21.0—JHU, U. of Illinois Urbana
20.3—U. of Maryland</p>

<p>19.6—Penn State, UC Santa Barbara
15.6—Georgia Tech
14.7—Purdue
14.2—Indiana U. Bloomington</p>

<p>In the English ranking, looking just as the regression analysis, the top ten schools are:</p>

<p>ENGLISH</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—Princeton
3—Columbia
4—Stanford
5—Yale
6—Berkeley
7—CUNY
8—Cornell
9—U. of Wisconsin
10–Brown</p>

<p> </p>

6

<p>Thanks, Pgrad, for your analysis. I find this information very interesting, and knowing that these graduate departments and professors directly affect the undergraduate teaching is gratifying.</p>

7

<p>Thanks JHS and PtonGrad. Typical of my alma mater to do better in a reputational survey… :-)</p>

8

<p>Do you have the rankings for Aerospace engineering, Bioengineering, Statistics, and Industrial engineering/operations research?</p>

9

<p>Sure. Here are the averaging results for some of these more specialized fields.</p>

<p>AEROSPACE ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Cal Tech
3—U. of Michigan
4—U. of Colorado
5—MIT
6—U. of Minnesota
7—Georgia Tech
8—U. of Maryland
9—Purdue
10–Cornell</p>

<p>BIOENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—UC San Deigo
2—Cal Tech
3—Berkeley
4—UCSF
5—MIT
6—U. of Washington
7—Duke
8—Boston U.
9—U. of Michigan
10–Yale</p>

<p>STATISTICS</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Harvard
3—Berkeley
4—U. of Michigan
5—Iowa State
6—U. of Chicago
7—U. of Washington
8—U. of Wisconsin
9—UNC Chapel Hill
10–NC State</p>

<p>INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Georgia Tech
3—MIT
4—Cornell
5—Northwestern
6—Berkeley
7—U. of Michgan
8—Purdue
9—Penn State
10–U. of Wisconsin
 </p>

10

<p>Most of the leading universities in the country have now had time to review and comment on these NRC rankings. Below are links to the official announcements of the results. You can get different perspectives from each and I provide them here for reference.</p>

<p>It appears that Yale and Caltech have made no public comment.</p>

<p>[Harvard Gazette Online – High marks for doctoral programs](<a href=“High marks for doctoral programs – Harvard Gazette”>A look inside: Currier House – Harvard Gazette)</p>

<p>[Princeton</a> University - Princeton Ph.D. programs get high marks in national assessment](<a href=“Princeton Ph.D. programs get high marks in national assessment”>Princeton Ph.D. programs get high marks in national assessment)</p>

<p>[Stanford</a> News – National Research Council doctoral program ratings released](<a href=“You've requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News”>You've requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News) </p>

<p>[MIT</a> | Rankings Reaffirm MIT Leadership Role in Science and Technology](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/rankings-nrc.html]MIT”>National Research Council releases assessment of U.S. doctoral programs | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology) </p>

<p>[UC</a> Berkeley | National Research Council ranks UC Berkeley’s Ph.D. programs among nation’s best](<a href=“http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/09/28_nrc-rankings.shtml]UC”>National Research Council ranks UC Berkeley’s Ph.D. programs among nation’s best | Berkeley News)</p>

<p>[Columbia</a> PhD Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences Rated Best Overall by the NRC! | Earth and Environmental Sciences](<a href=“http://eesc.columbia.edu/news-events/news/phd-program-earth-and-environmental-sciences-rated-best-overall-nrc]Columbia”>http://eesc.columbia.edu/news-events/news/phd-program-earth-and-environmental-sciences-rated-best-overall-nrc)</p>

<p>[U&lt;/a&gt;. of Chicago | A short summary of the 2010 NRC report](<a href=“http://news.uchicago.edu/btn/nrc.summary.php]U”>http://news.uchicago.edu/btn/nrc.summary.php)</p>

<p>[U&lt;/a&gt;. of Michigan | National Research Council releases long-awaited assessment](<a href=“http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/100929/nrc]U”>http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/100929/nrc)</p>