<p>Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings:</p>
<p>Engineering & Technology
<a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/engineering-and-IT.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/engineering-and-IT.html</a>
RANK; INSTITUTION; COUNTRY / REGION; OVERALL SCORE
1 California Institute of Technology United States 92.7
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 92.7
3 Princeton University United States 92.4
4 University of California, Berkeley United States 91.7
5 Stanford University United States 91.4
6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 90.6
7 University of Oxford United Kingdom 87.4
8 University of California, Los Angeles United States 87.3
9 ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland 87.1
10 Imperial College London United Kingdom 85.7
11 Georgia Institute of Technology United States 85.4
12 Carnegie Mellon University United States 83.2
13 University of Texas at Austin United States 81
14 University of Michigan United States 80.8
15 Cornell University United States 79.8
16 University of California, Santa Barbara United States 78.1
16 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States 78.1
18 University of Toronto Canada 78
19 National University of Singapore Singapore 77.5
20 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland 77.1</p>
<p>Arts & Humanities
<a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/arts-and-humanities.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/arts-and-humanities.html</a>
RANK; INSTITUTION; COUNTRY / REGION; OVERALL SCORE
1 Stanford University United States 88.6
2 Harvard University United States 87.8
3 University of Chicago United States 87.1
4 Australian National University Australia 84
4 Princeton University United States 84
6 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 83.2
7 University of Oxford United Kingdom 83.1
8 University College London United Kingdom 81.5
8 University of California, Berkeley United States 81.5
10 University of Toronto Canada 79.7
11 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom 79.6
12 Yale University United States 79.5
13 University of Michigan United States 79.3
14 University of California, Los Angeles United States 79.1
15 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey United States 78.3
16 New York University United States 75.5
17 Cornell University United States 74.8
18 The University of Sydney Australia 74.7
19 University of Melbourne Australia 73
20 University of Texas at Austin United States 69.3</p>
<p>I have not read the rest of the article, but I have quite a few issues with the idea that French and German universities are vastly inferior to their international counterparts.</p>
<p>Firstly, the fact that Germany and France don’t screen students might be an indicator of the superior quality of French and German high school education. I have quite a few European friends that have experienced the US education system, and they all claim that the standard high school education in these countries is on par if not superior to that of the best high schools in the US. My school, for example, always sends its best students to top universities in the US. Last year a girl arrived from Spain and started getting straight A’s right off the bat, saying that it was much easier compared to her high school in Spain. Also, I very much doubt that universities don’t take into consideration students’ grades if that is the argument being proposed…</p>
<p>Second, the nature of the rankings is something that has always bothered me about rankings like US News and THE. I understand that the universities being considered are research universities, so of course research should be a factor of the calculation process, but shouldn’t students and parents care more about the actual quality of the education rather than how many journals cite the college? At the undergraduate level, at least, a university’s research productivity should not matter much. Learning environment, the one factor that will affect me most as a future undergrad, counts for only 30% in these rankings. Isn’t it a good thing, then, that these universities focus more on actual teaching than their research productivity?</p>
<p>Perhaps. But to get a more valuable reason, all you need to do is looking at the moronic methology. Of course, not sure why this ranking has much of aything to do with the scope of this forum. When it gets to college SELECTION for undergraduate students, perhaps we should look at how students vote with their feet. How many students who did have THE CHOICE BETWEEN the two schools opted for Cal? You can count them on both hands. </p>
<p>^ The other half of this forum title is called SEARCH. Kids always ask what schools are strongest in ___________? This can serve as an answer to that question. :)</p>