<p>I'd just like to say, cuz apparently no one else has, that unless you (the people criticizing or commending the THES) are a statistical analyst with actual, first hand knowledge of what the hell you're talking about, please refrain from spewing out your dogma all over our shoes. You simply don't know what you're talking about.</p>
<p>Saying "the THES sucks cuz it ranks my ______ university at 40 and the USNWR ranks it at 15!" is ridiculous. You're attacking one ranking system (that you don't know much about) by saying that ANOTHER ranking system (that you don't know much about) says something differently. The only reason anyone thinks that Harvard is better than Princeton, or that Berkeley is any better than UCLA, is because you read it in USNWR. The THES does not make up their numbers. They can't. They would go out of business too quickly because, as some of you don't seem to realize, the statistics they use are scrutinized in an extremely thorough manner by independent analysts who are in the business of making sure research isn't fudged. So please, spare us your hurt-ego blabbering about how your school ranked differently elsewhere.</p>
<p>In regard to the person who was complaining about the student/faculty ratio, and how schools such as berkeley and umich received such different scores, let me just say this: yes, at first glance that seems odd, but I'm guessing the many highly educated professionals, who would be quickly fired if they attempted to publish any sort of miscalculation, determined the scores by looking at a few more sources than your google search.</p>
<p>For those who are talking about the quality of research coming out of their institution, or the institution in question, please--do keep talking if you in fact know ANYTHING about the research that comes out of a university. If you have read hundreds and thousands of publications that have come from Harvard, or UCSB, or Arizona State, understood them, compared them to other universities, and looked at how many of those publications are used in other research, then your opinion is valuable to the college confidential community; the THES definitely did, and therefore their opinion is valuable. I'm don't think I'm taking a huge leap of faith in guessing that maybe 10 people on this entire website have--and those people have usernames such as "Researcher for the THES".</p>
<p>In reality, the only thing you can say about the THES is that you either agree or disagree with their methodology. If staff/student ratios, or international faculty and student numbers are not important to you, then disregard the THES because, surprise, that's taken into account (although to those of you complaining that one of these factors put one school at a much higher ranking than another, keep in mind that each of these factors account for 5% of the total score). If you're still stuck in the 12th grade "the harder it is to get into a school the better it is" mindset, then stick to the USNWR which caters more to that crowd.</p>
<p>I know this is a long post and most likely is wasting your time, but I feel like enough of my time has been wasted by reading the wonderful and ultimately helpful "UPenn >> Princeton WHHHAATTTTTT?" comments, that maybe people could take a second before they post and ask themselves "am i saying this because my ego has been hurt by these rankings and i feel the need to assert myself? or do I in fact have something productive to say that others might find helpful, interesting, or funny?"</p>
<p>May the yelling resume.</p>