What is the world's most prestigous university? My choices: Science and engineering: California Institute of Technology Business/Ecomomics: University of Chicago
Strangely, I thought the world consisted of more than one country. United States of America... even if that covered North America, Central America, and South America there are still 4 continents unaccounted. I had a feeling my teachers were lying and now I have the proof. Quick call Agent Mulder and Agent Scully!
Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Institute of Higher Education and The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) both list Harvard as number 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities & http://www.webometrics.info/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THES_-_QS_World_University_Rankings & http://www.topuniversities.com/
The Shanghai rankings have the top ten universities in the world as: 1. Harvard 2. Cambridge 3. Stanford 4. UC Berkeley 5. MIT 6. Cal Tech 7. Columbia 8. (tie) Princeton 8. (tie) U. Chicago 10. Oxford These rankings are based on things like publications, citations, awards and stuff like that. I suspect that the methodology favors the sciences over the humanities and probably favors English-language medium schools. http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2006/ARWU2006_Top100.htm Another way to look at it is by institutional citation rankings in particular research areas. Since different schools have strengths in different things, the lists look very different, depending on the research topic. For earthquakes, the US Geological Survey (not a degree grantor) is number one by several orders of magnitude. The top university is #2 Cal Tech. For volcanoes, the USGS is atop the list again, with the U. of Hawaii #2. (Interestingly, US News undergraduate ranking has U. Hawaii down in the 3'd tier.) For black holes, Cambridge U. has the top position, probably due to the crowd attracted by Steven Hawking's massive gravitational field. For embryonic stem cells, Harvard is number one, followed by the U. of Toronto. For dark matter and dark energy, the citation leader is Germany's Max Planck Institute of Astrophysics. The top university is #2 Princeton. For Bose-Einstein condensates, the top spot is the U. of Colorado at Boulder. In quantum cyptography, the top two spots seem to be corporate labs, IBM and BT Labs, with the top university #3 U. Geneva. For apoptosis, the top place is Harvard. I love the fact that the Burnham Institute, whose brand-new doctoral program is still only California-approved, holds the number 4 spot in the world citation rankings in this subject (which concerns programmed cell-death), ahead of lesser schools like MIT, Stanford and Berkeley. Goes to show... something about niche subjects I guess. http://www.esi-topics.com The influential Philosophical Gourmet Report has the top ten philosophy departments in the English-speaking world (based in this case largely on other prominent philosopher's opinion of strength of faculty) as: 1. New York University 2. (tie) Oxford University 2. (tie) Rutgers University , New Brunswick 4. (tie) Princeton University 4. (tie) University of Michigan , Ann Arbor 6. University of Pittsburgh 7. Stanford University 8. (tie) Harvard University 8. (tie) Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8. (tie) University of California , Los Angeles It's interesting to note the pronounced gravitation of big-name philosophers into the greater New York City region in recent years (and that Columbia isn't their major destination). The Gourmet report proceeds to break things down by philosophical specialty and as in the scientific citation rankings those lists can vary a great deal. Pittsburgh is high on the overall list because of its longtime strength in the philosophy of science. Princeton is the place to go for the history of philosophy. As you might expect, Notre Dame is big in medieval philosophy. And so on. http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/rankings.asp
Bill: "...The influential Philosophical Gourmet Report..." John: Exactly who does it influence? The "Gourmet" was developed as an antidote to the "Gourman" survey, and I gather that when philosophers gather at their conventions, there is much discussion about which one is sillier. "Gourman" is published by the Princeton Review, a publisher of academic how-to and other books. "Gourmet" is done Robert Leiter, who also is or has been a writer and publisher of academic how-to books. So I get the feeling this has an element of two for-profit publishers having a bit of fun.
Philosophers, and those that hire, employ or fund them. To say nothing of aspiring philosophy graduate students. The rankings were compiled by polling more than 300 professional philosophers, including some very big names. It's the only ranking of philosophy departments by philosophers that I'm aware of. http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/reportdesc.asp
My choice for the best by country Yale University ( US ), University of Salamanca ( Spain ), Tokyo University ( Japan ), Oxford University ( UK ), Seoul National University ( South Korea ). Yale University is my first pick. Of course, there is always Hamburger University
Ok, a minor annoyance of mine. Harvard hasn't updated their web page in over six years. It's been looking rather old and worn for quite some time now. At a school with their endowment, it's not a matter of neglect or resources. To me, it's like they're saying, "We're Harvard, and we're so important, we don't even have to pretend to care what kind of impression we're giving you". On the other hand, Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford have very nice, modern designs
The web site of capital college is sleek, well organized, user friendly, and modern. It is one of my favorite college web sites in terms of design. http://www.capitol-college.edu/
Hankuk University Well here's one that confidently says they will be: http://tinyurl.com/6bar4x For now, however, all they've got is the world's hardest to read website. "Hey, black on dark green, there's a catchy color combo..."
This was a topic of conversation over dinner at a conference I attended last week. My question should have been what are top universities for specific topic research areas (as answered by Bill Dayson above).
I confess that I don't know much about the current status of this school (my French is Tres Rustie) but it certainly has a huge and famous history that has to put it up there in the running. There are a number of other European universities in the same category. Look to Scotland, Ireland and Germany to name just a few.
That's exactly what they're saying, and they're exactly right. If Harvard pulled their website down and replaced it with a picture of an upraised middle finger, do you really think that would deter the best and brightest from beating down the door to the admissions office?
