<p>If Princeton and Harvard are tied for number 1, that makes Yale the 3rd best school. Otherwise you end up with way more than 10 schools in the top ten/</p>
<p>Many scholars, at least, seem to be saying that rankings based on peer-review are not accurate enough, while teaching and student quality cannot be measured internationally, so the only way to measure global university rankings is by measuring their top-level research output.</p>
<p>I agree, but no need to worry; Brown’s ranking is not so high, but its per-capita score for both awards and for citations is in the pretty high end (its per-capita performance score is identical to Columbia’s, if that means anything).</p>
<p>I hope we get one or more Nobel Laureates from our current group of faculty members soon.</p>
<p>I also ditched Chicago (ranked at 9th) for Brown, but what the hell; the SJTU rankings weren’t regarded well in 2003 or 04, while Brown beat Chicago in the US News rankings until 2005.</p>
<p>And I haven’t even graduated since I’ve been on leave, but returning to Brown as a senior this fall; I have a dorm in Metcalf.</p>
<p>Doesn’t that tell you something? You need to WANT Brown (ps our daughter’s there now!). It’s the best-kept secret in undergrad. education!</p>
<p>Yeah, please don’t tell anyone but the over 30.000!!! applicants that Brown is one of the best Colleges in the world :)</p>
<p>If I learned anything in my econ courses then that the demand determines the REAL value of a good and not some stupid tabloid.(All Ivys have about the same supply of Undergrad places)
I would choose Brown any day above Penn, Duke, Wash U etc. as would most other people. But maybe we are all totally IRRATIONAL and a ranking based on research that barely effects most undergrads is right (lol)</p>
<p>I don’t think high school students are paying too much attention to the rankings, because despite its relatively low ranking, Brown was able to be more selective than any other college other than HYPS and Columbia.</p>
<p>Brown’s selectivity was always oddly disproportional to its US News ranking. I don’t know why that is. It’s not as if Brown enjoys some kind of huge cultural cache and is coasting on an undeserved reputation.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think all the undergrad institutions from about 1-20 are about the same. Undergrad is more about learning how to be a student, as opposed to learning any actual meaningful material. No undergrad is going to barred from his dreams just because there just weren’t enough Nobel Prize winners on the faculty. Nobel Prize winners probably don’t teach classes anyway, and if they do, those classes are probably very high level ones that most students won’t be able to take. Or if those professors do teach big classes, then they’re going to be way too busy to become BFFs with some overly ambitious undergrad.</p>
<p>The students at the #20 schools aren’t that dumb, and the students at the top schools aren’t that smart. There are plenty of intelligent and talented people to go around populating each graduating class.</p>
<p>I think that things like geographical location, weather, and school culture (Greek? Athletic? Hippie? Trust-fundy?) are more pertinent than things like endowment, prestigious faculty, or peer assessment.</p>