<p>THES and QS are two separate rankings now and, contrary to what other posters imply here, they have great credibility overseas. </p>
<p>The federal government of Brazil for example has recently announced a [new major initiative](<a href=“CAPES”>CAPES) to award up to 75 thousand full scholarships in the next 4 years to Brazilian students who want to pursue both undergraduate and graduate studies abroad. The government’s press release ** explicitly ** mentions that the program "will prioritize [universities that are ranked top 30](<a href=“CAPES”>CAPES) in international rankings such as THES and QS. " No reference to USN&WR.</p>
<p>Alexandre: I have gone through this college admission process with a dozen nieces and nephews, a few children of our friends, one international student, our only S, and many of our S’s friends. Using this small almost exclusively NJ sample, BC is seen as substantially more prestigious than Michigan.</p>
<p>Since political commentaries are a no-no on College Confidential, not much can be said about the POTUS speech. On the other hand, there’s a plenty that can be said about a rating agency that missed the projections by a mere 2T and missed the 2007-2008 financial meltdown by a mile and a half. </p>
<p>Back to the topic of the thread, this has nothing to do with considering what the world thinks is not important. It has all to do with the relevance to what USNews covers. The context of this thread is the DOMESTIC and UG programs. Arrogant as it may seem to some, it is a fact that the opinion of an uninformed person or one obsessed by the illusion of prestige is utterly irrelevant. Just as irrelevant as the collective opinion of the participants of this board on the reputation of the Grandes Ecoles in France is. Just as irrelevant as the opinion on the best medical schools or conservatories around the world.</p>
<p>In the meantime, you should not despair. Bob Morse does see that a few cents can be made in the international arena. </p>
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<p>I believe you will have plenty of opportunities to discuss the above or the ARWU in the appropriate CC forum. I believe it is somewhere at the bottom of the main page, nicely showcased between the Business School - MBA and Pre-Vet & Veterinary Medicine fora.</p>
<p>1) Princeton
2) Harvard
2) Yale
4) MIT
4) Stanford
6) Caltech
6) Chicago
6) Penn
9) Columbia
9) Duke
10) Dartmouth
12) Brown
12) Northwestern
14) Johns Hopkins
14) WUSTL
16) Cornell
17) Notre Dame
17) Vanderbilt
19) Emory
19) Rice
21) Berkeley
22) Georgetown
23) Carnegie Mellon
23) USC
25) Bowling Green
25) Virginia</p>
<p>I know a lot of people are saying that Rice and Bowling Green should be in the top 15, but the rankings just don’t change that quickly from year to year. There is a lot of inertia built into the ranking methodology, especially in the form of “peer rating”.</p>
<p>bruno123: The decision by Brazil seems very reasonable in allowing students to select from the world’s best universities. If we only use the top 30 universities from THES, it is hardly bad news for the US institutions. They make up 2/3rds of this short list. Since the criteria is different from that used by USN&WR or Forbes, the specific colleges are not exactly the same (LACs, for example, appear to be excluded by THES). None of this is surprising or unreasonable.</p>
<p>The QS World University Rankings has 15 US universities in their top 30 list. This is still 50% on a list that, to me, appears to have an unusually favorable predisposition to UK schools.</p>
<p>^the fact that the University Of California - San Francisco is ranked very highly on these listings shows you who the rankings are geared towards.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to call attention to it because I didn’t want to seem as though I was bragging, but thank you for pointing this out in case anyone missed it. Yes, BG has made great strides in the last few years. :D</p>
<p>^^ Not really. ARWU doesn’t say it’s rating graduate programs only. Their methodology includes all alumni. UCSF just happens to have a great faculty and is a stand-alone medical school. USNWR counts medical school research money towards its financial resources rank…so much for being an exclusive “undergraduate” ranking. You aren’t going to find a ranking that parses out faculty awards for graduate and professional schools.</p>
<p>The international rankings offer other data points that could be important to undergrads.</p>
<p>So true! Important points to help UGs evaluate their possibilities for future graduate school. As far as important points for high school students looking at the entire realm of US COLLEGES, I’d say little to nothing of real value.</p>
<p>I think what students need to do is take all the info from all these rankings and put them together and determine what is important to them. No one ranking set is going to factor in everything that is important to a college decision (if that’s even possible)</p>
<p>ARWU
Nobel laureates- Yeah right my chances of winning a nobel are upped by going to harvard
Number of international students- ???</p>
<p>QS ranking
Employer index- UC Berkeley, Northwestern and Duke students have superior job prospects relative to Princeton students.
International Faculty- Having teachers with strong accents aids your academic
developments
Academic reputation index- Tsinghua and HKU and UCSD have the same/slightly superior academic reputation as UPenn. </p>
<p>I could go on and on about how these rankings defy logic but I can bet you will just pass them over and provide some more excuses.</p>