@NoVADad99 I’ll grant that your lineup is clever and I basically agree with it. But also note that an accurate transcription of the Cyrillic would have those letters being SSSR. So now you’ve got to elevate a few S’s.
I’d take Swarthmore, for one. Then what? Syracuse? Sewanee?
@Prezbucky
|“1-5: HYPSM
6-9: CCCP
10-16: Berkeley, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, JHU, Northwestern
17-25: Rice, Vandy, Wash U, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Michigan, Virginia, Emory, CMU
26-36: UCLA, UNC, UW, UW, UT, Tufts, USC, NYU, BC, GIT, UIUC”
Using prestige of the true layperson,
I suggest: DUMBNUTS
Duke, UVA, Michigan, Berkeley, Notre Dame, UCLA, Texas, Southern Cal
@Much2learn I consider myself the ultimate layperson and DEEZNUTS it much more prestigious than DUMBNUTS.
re: 41
That’s pretty awesome.
I thought about doing something with the 10-16 line, like JohN’s BBC DD or some such mirthful nonsense…
I personally think grad school rankings are biased towards the largest programs. College officials are much more likely to be familiar with professors, research and grad students coming out of a very large grad program than a smaller one, even if the smaller one might provide a better education.
@palm715 “I consider myself the ultimate layperson and DEEZNUTS it much more prestigious than DUMBNESS.”
I was trying to make an acronym that only included schools with great sports teams, which is how the average person probably thinks about it. To be clear, it isn’t a commentary on the schools I listed, just a commentary on how people think. I imagine that Average Joe probably thinks, “Why wouldn’t the top two colleges be Alabama and Villanova? They won and the football and basketball championships.”
@Much2learn So is OSU like the Cornell of the DUMBNESS league?
@OHMomof2 “@Much2learn So is OSU like the Cornell of the DUMBNESS league?”
An O is just not very helpful in making an acronym.
If by the Cornell of the DUMBNUTS League, you mean the best, then I think you could say that. (I have to say that since SO is a Cornell grad). 
@PurpleTitan I just had a chance to look at post 21. On a per capita basis, CalTech is head and shoulder above anyone else. Is the school underrated in your scoring system?
@Canuckguy, Caltech does extremely well in the “academic” success categories (PhDs produced, prestigious student awards won; also major science awards won, as you saw) and not so well in the “professional” success categories (numbers in elite business/law/med schools & and leaders in business/government/arts produced).
It blows away everyone in PhD production, in fact, but is not a very “balanced” school in many ways.
@UWfromCA some of these links are from the 1990’s!
Yes, one of the links was to Professor Newton’s analysis of the 1995 NRC rankings. I have not attempted to compare it with the data in the 2010 NRC rankings. It would be interesting to see such a comparison and how much things have changed, or more likely in many areas, how much they have essentially remained the same.
Well, where is the link to the USNWR prestige rankings? The academic reputation scores, which are linked in the original post, have been integral to USNWR rankings since their inception. The link, btw, refers to a three year old compilation.
Can you imagine the fun if USNWR were to release a separate annual “prestige ranking”? Oh my!
For what it’s worth, this analysis includes more recent (and more extensive) USNWR academic reputation rankings:
http://publicuniversityhonors.com/rankings-academic-departments-private-elites-vs-publics/
@UWfromCA that would be awesome! It might beat out the the USNews National ranking which is deeply flawed.
According to USNews National Ranking
Notre Dame is better than Berkley??
Wake Forest is better than UMichigan, UNC-Chapel Hill??
And Dartmouth, which is not known for its research academics, is the best college ever created.
I always find myself examining the algorithm they used and then having it be not what I expected. Do they even have an algorithm for “prestige?”
Before anyone can create a computer program to rank colleges by “prestige”, someone needs to define exactly what it is and how to measure it. It seems to have something to do with fame (name recognition) combined with a reputation for exclusivity and academic quality. These three features don’t always go together; they aren’t necessarily easy to measure.
The criteria and weights that drive UNWR’s national university ranking don’t quite corroborate the opinions expressed in the Peer Assessment (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights). Nor do the Forbes or Parchment rankings. However, there is a lot of overlap in the sets of top colleges they all identify (if not in the specific order).
USNWR Peer Assessment ranking:
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2013/02/28/which-universities-are-ranked-highest-by-college-officials
Berkeley #6, Dartmouth #13, Michigan #13, UNC-CH #19
USNWR National University ranking:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
Dartmouth #12, Notre Dame #18, Berkeley #20, Wake Forest #27, Michigan #29, UNC-CH #30.
Forbes ranking (includes LACs, emphasizes alumni outcomes):
http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/#tab:rank
Notre Dame #13, Dartmouth #14, Berkeley #35, Michigan #41, UNC-CH #49, Wake Forest #59.
Parchment ranking (includes LACs, emphasizes matriculation preferences):
http://www.parchment.com/c/college/search/browse/
Notre Dame #18, Berkeley #19, Michigan #35, Dartmouth #42,UNC-CH #65, Wake Forest #287.
“Before anyone can create a computer program to rank colleges by “prestige”, someone needs to define exactly what it is and how to measure it. It seems to have something to do with fame (name recognition) combined with a reputation for exclusivity and academic quality. These three features don’t always go together; they aren’t necessarily easy to measure.”
And prestige among whom (general public, other college educated people, college educated people who are “into” colleges, academics, business people - and what businesses).
And by region of the country. Some of the colleges that people act as though they are so “prestigious” are hardly on anyone’s radar screen in my region. And vice versa of course.
And most importantly - can something be prestigious even though it’s not broadly known by the masses. I say yes. My D’s school falls into that category - - a top 10 LAC mostly known by those from that region or those who are “into” colleges, but not the average Joe.