<p>Harvard, Stanford (I believe it will be the BEST university in the world before I retire), Oxford, Cambridge, MIT</p>
<p>Interesting that people tend to mention Cambridge more often than Oxford…</p>
<p>^ Most world rankings do indeed rank Cambridge higher.</p>
<p>
All of the major league tables within the UK rank Oxford higher.</p>
<ul>
<li>[Guardian[/url</a>]<br></li>
<li>[url=<a href=“The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines”>http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php]Sunday</a> Times](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2009/may/12/university-league-table]Guardian[/url”>University guide 2010: University league table | Education | theguardian.com)</li>
<li>[url=<a href=“http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=8726]Independent[/url”>University Rankings and League Tables 2024]Independent[/url</a>]</li>
</ul>
<p>As I said before, they’re completely interchangeable.</p>
<p>^ All three rankings cited here - [File:Rankings.PNG</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rankings.PNG]File:Rankings.PNG”>File:Rankings.PNG - Wikipedia) - rank Cambridge higher than Oxford.</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rankings.PNG]File:Rankings.PNG](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rankings.PNG%5DFile:Rankings.PNG){kind=link}
<p>Cambridge and Oxford via for top honors continually - the crown goes back and forth.</p>
<p>While I agree Michigan is not among the top 5, perhaps even top ten, it does have a substantial presence in one major area that Berkeley does not. That is of course a world class medical school/hospital complex and all of the associated disciplines that go along with it. A huge portion of research funding and discovery are tired directly with having a top tier medical school.</p>
<p>^ UCSF, rjk, UCSF… ;)</p>
<p>LOL. I was waiting for that. ;-)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Anglos have a monopoly on the world’s finest schools. Get over it, Frenchie.</p>
<p>oxford, cambridge, Harvard, yale, stanford</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you look more closely at the rankings that put Oxford above Cambridge, you’ll notice that Oxford wins by having a lower student-staff ratio, spending more money on services and facilities, and by handing out “good honours” to a greater proportion of students (this is essentially a measure of grade inflation, and not really a good thing). Cambridge beats Oxford on student satisfaction, research quality, entry standards, employment prospects, and has a lower drop-out rate. I know which university I’d consider better based on that!</p>
<p>Note: I am admittedly biased toward Cambridge, but in all fairness Cambridge did come top of all the national newspaper rankings for many years until The Times decided to put a lot more weight on centralized facilities spending, which pushed Oxford into first place. I won’t even bother with The Guardian, which was notorious for including a few non-existent departments in their rankings at one point.</p>
<p>Having said all that, I do agree that Oxford has a higher profile in the US and is more prestigious to the average person there, so I’m also a bit surprised to see Cambridge’s higher showing on a US college board.</p>
<p>Harvard and Stanford are the top two. Berkeley, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford contend for the remaining three spots.</p>
<ol>
<li>Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK</li>
<li>Harvard University, Cambridge, USA</li>
<li>University Of Chicago, Chicago, USA</li>
<li>Yale University, New Haven, USA</li>
<li>Oxford University, Oxford, UK</li>
</ol>
<p>How does Oxford and Cambridge compare to a Yale, MIT, Princeton, Chicago, Michigan, Columbia and Cornell in terms of strength of academic offerings?</p>
<p>I believe Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley provide the most breadth and depth taking into consideration faculty and academic programs. </p>
<p>Arguable cases could be made for others.</p>
<p>“I believe Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley provide the most breadth and depth taking into consideration faculty and academic programs.”</p>
<p>Actually the breadth at Stanford and Harvard is greater than that of Berkeley. They both have medical schools. :-)</p>
<p>It looks like only two schools made every person’s list: Harvard and Cambridge.</p>
<p>I suppose I’d go with (in no order):</p>
<p>Harvard
Cambridge
Stanford
UC Berkeley
Oxford or MIT (can’t quite choose…)</p>
<p>Princeton is probably the top undergrad college on the planet, H and Y are not even close. Berkeley is just plain not in the running.</p>
<p>^^Here we go again! We’re talking about the world’s top five schools. That means overall schools, not just for undergraduate.</p>