According to US News,
Berkeley is ranked #20 in national universities but #3 in global universities? Can someone please explain how this works?
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/university-of-california-berkeley-110635
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/uc-berkeley-1312
International rankings typically emphasize PhD programs, since the top international students commonly attend US universities as funded PhD students.
US domestic rankings attempt to rank undergraduate programs, where the bulk of US students attend.
Of course, in both cases, the ranking methodologies can be controversial, and may not match what an individual student values. In particular, a PhD student is much more interested in the quality and reputation of the department, rather than the school overall.
USNWR’s US rankings are based on totally different criteria, including weight for stuff like alumni giving, students’ HS class rank, a poll of HS guidance counselors, i.e .stuff that is totally irrelevant outside the US-- like the average HS counselor in the US could articulate any opinion about the relative merit of universities in Singapore vs. the Netherlands…
A swim meet analogy:
US rankings are a breaststroke race.
Int’l rankings are freestyle race.
The fastest breaststroke swimmers in a meet are not always the same people as the fastest freestyle swimmers in the meet.