<p>Vanderbilt has long had a reputation for being generous with financial aid. The no-loan policy has only served to reinforce its commitment to attracting a diverse student community that includes greater low-income and lower middle class representation in recent years. I’m not sure why you would think they are obsessed with rankings. They pay attention to them, but they definitely aren’t influencing how the university views its mission and implements strategies to meet that mission.</p>
<p>New Times World University rankings are out.</p>
<p>[World</a> University Rankings 2013-2014 - Times Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking]World”>World University Rankings 2013-14 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is #88, behind such as Michigan State (#83), Emory (#80), Purdue (#62), UNC Chapel Hill (#47), UT- Austin (#27) and . . . . gasp . . .</p>
<p>Both of the popular global college rankings, the Times and the ARWU, are particularly useless because they are almost entirely based upon research output, which is almost completely irrelevant to an undergraduate. The Times rankings list Rutgers above Dartmouth, for example.</p>
<p>Any tool which allows you to choose your own criteria and weight them accordingly, such as College Factual, is much more useful.</p>
<p>All polls are limited by their methodology. The WUR gives 60% weight to research so research juggernauts and the gigantic state flagships with large graduate programs will fair well due to volume. Engineering programs and U’s with large medical centers will also produce a lot of research (again at the graduate level). You will not see any LAC’s in this ranking and as noted above research is mostly irrelevant to undergraduates.<br>
They also look at international outlook and it is probably fair to say Vanderbilt is more committed to domestic students than many of its peers.</p>