OT: World Reputation Rankings 2015. UM #19

Submitted by GoBlueCA on

11 B1G schools make the list of top 100 in the world with Michigan leading the pack. Go Blue!

 

Michigan #19

Illinois #30 

Wisconsin #38

Northwestern #47

#61 <  PSU < #70

#71 < MSU, Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota < #80

#81 < OSU < #90 

#91 < Maryland < #100 

 

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2015/reputation-ranking/range/01-50

 

Nacho Man

March 11th, 2015 at 7:18 PM ^

Frankly, #19 seems a bit on the low end. There are very few schools who have a collection of top notch graduate programs like UM. Glad to be a graduate and major property owner in Ann Arbor, as I don't see the value of my degree or property going down anytime soon.

Commie_High96

March 11th, 2015 at 10:46 PM ^

This list seems super skewed to medicine. How is Johns Hopkins and UCSF ranked so high. Name one person who went to either of those schools! Ed note: my father has an Poli Sci PhD from UCSF to go with his UM Econ PhD. So I am not biased against UCSF, but with those degrees my father is sometimes insufferable.

Nacho Man

March 11th, 2015 at 7:17 PM ^

Northwestern has a couple of programs that are considered tops in their field. But on the whole, their grad programs tend to be ranked lower.

dupont circle

March 12th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

What do you mean by "on the whole"? I think every program NU offers is highly ranked, no? They're much smaller, so their scope wouldn't be as large, but the niches they do offer are typically higher ranked or a peer of U-M. Off the top of my head: Medical, business, law, communication, journalism, economics.

SAMgO

March 11th, 2015 at 7:18 PM ^

They can't compete with the scope and funding that top state schools have for research. It's very difficult for a school as small as Northwestern to place well in international academic rankings. It's a better undergraduate teaching institution than it is a research institution.

bronxblue

March 11th, 2015 at 9:17 PM ^

One thing I know is that much of the reputation score for schools comes from (largely) STEM research.  NW, given its size, just can't compete.  UM is rare that it is a large state school with massive research areas.

west2

March 11th, 2015 at 7:16 PM ^

completely that 19 is low. Cambridge-schmambridge, U of M is a top 10 international academic institution. Leaders and the best, period!

gwkrlghl

March 11th, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^

supposedly their engineering school is as good or better than Michigan's, and as an engineer in industry, I have yet to meet an Illinois engineering grad. Are they all in Chicago? St Louis?

I'm out east and I've met numerous MSU, OSU, Michigan, and Purdue grads, but never an Illinois engineer. They've like unicorns. Supposedly they're out there with magical powers, but I've never seen one

MichiganTeacher

March 12th, 2015 at 12:45 AM ^

You know, that's a fantastic point. I've never thought about it before.

I'm not an engineer, but off the top of my head, I can think of people that I've worked with who have STEM degrees from Michigan, Cornell, OSU, Princeton, Clarkson, all sorts of SUNY schools, PSU, MSU, ND... but never a single Illini. Huh. Maybe they all just turn west?

Romulan Commander

March 12th, 2015 at 9:19 AM ^

I work in Champaign in the advancement/ development side of the U of  Illinois. From the alumni figures I've seen, UI STEM grads are clustered in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs with a sizeable number in the SF Bay Area. The Physics Dept. is very strong here, I know a  couple of MIT grads getting their doctorates here. Also the agriculture school is as good as you might imagine a school with an experimental cornfield on campus would be. The architecture, design and fine arts schools are surprisingly excellent.  But more than one academic I have met here describes Michigan as their "aspirational peer." Which warms this cotton pickin' maize and blue heart.

dupont circle

March 12th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ^

Heard of the Paypal Mafia? Most of the members attended Stanford -or- Illinois. Mafia includes co-founders of YouTube, Paypal, Yelp!, SpaceX, Tesla, Javascript, LinkedIn.

I think a lot of Midwest engineering students at UIUC and UM use their degree to propel them out of gloomy flyover country and move to sunny California. Can't blame them.

HarbaughToMichigan

March 12th, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^

"General Studies casts a wide net on what you want to do."  Yeah, a net with holes so wide you'll never catch a job.  Lets not act like Michigan's "General Studies" (ever heard of a non-athlete with that major?) is some sort of pinnacle of academic achievement.  Didn't UM just switch all the athletes to/from General Studies to/from Kinesiology/Sports Management around that time anyways?

bluebots

March 11th, 2015 at 7:31 PM ^

It's a fun, but useless list.  All things considered though, I don't think it's really unfair to U of M (and I'm saying this as a law school grad -- one of the highly ranked units at Michigan).  The only schools that make me raise an eyebrow are UCLA and Toronto.  

That having said, I would much rather have gone to Michigan for my undergrad than where I went (which is higher on the list) and would definitely encourage my daughter to go to Ann Arbor no matter where else she was accepted.  

bluebots

March 11th, 2015 at 9:22 PM ^

I think Toronto is a fine school.  But to your point, I'm surprised that Toronto is 16 whereas McGill is at 35.  I think back in the day McGill was though of as being a lot more prestigious than Toronto, although Toronto has caught up and perhaps overtaken by a bit in recent times.  However, the 16 vs. 35 differential doesn't really ring true to me.       

 

EDIT:  I think the country to country comparisons are even more subjective than the intra-national comparisons, and even more useless.

East German Judge

March 11th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

MSU may have had our number for the last few years in Footbal, but wait till the Harbaughation begins!, but off the field with their ranking in the 70's, they will always be little brother.

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cigol

March 11th, 2015 at 7:53 PM ^

Considering that the concept was dug up and used only in a football context, I would say we are currently the 38 year old older brother getting whooped by his 28 year old younger brother, all while talking about how sweet we were back when the younger brother was hardly walking.

From an academic perspective, except for those few Wes Mantooth like fools in East Lansing who claim "We have a better veterinarian school....and things of that nature," nobody at MSU says they're a better all around university, so no.....theyre not little brother in an academic context.  They're just a similarly aged, significantly dumber brother that recognizes this fact.

JOHNNAVARREISMYHERO

March 11th, 2015 at 8:26 PM ^

You are ignoring a  lot of delusional people.  There are plenty of people who say and actually believe MSU is a better academic school (which probably explains why they had to choose (settle) on going there in the first place.

JonnyHintz

March 11th, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^

It depends on the program honestly. MSU is an better school than Michigan in certain areas. If you are looking at the broad sense of the debate, Michigan is far and away a better school academically than MSU. But to say that MSU isn't ahead of Michigan in a program or two, is flat out ignorant.

bronxblue

March 11th, 2015 at 9:20 PM ^

As someone who went there for law school, there are a not-insignificant number of MSU students who feel the school is just as good as UM, or perhaps more accurately, they totally got into UM but chose MSU because they have a better program in X.

bronxblue

March 12th, 2015 at 10:58 AM ^

Sorry - I didn't write that properly.  I mean when I went to the law school, I ran into undergrads and the general student body who thought the schools were similar.  I will openly admit that MSU law school is quite inferior to UM's, though as a general rule I've noticed that in MBA and Law programs the real value is in the networks and access they provide, not necessarily the education.  I mean, the bar passage rates of many law schools in Michigan are not demonstrably different, and the same is true here in NYC (two states I am licensed in).  Yet, going to NYU or Columbia is a heck of a lot better for you in terms of job opportunities compared to Albany, for example.

MichiganMAN47

March 11th, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^

I went to MSU for my undergrad, and I am currently enrolled at Ross. There are a ton of people who tried to convince me that MSU B-School was as good as Ross before I made the switch. They would go to extreme lengths to find obscure rankings which showed MSU to be on the same level as U of M. As someone who has experienced both sides of the fence, it isn't even close. The professors and the students are far superior here at U of M.There is a lot of envy of this University in East Lansing.



To be objective though, MSU is a GOOD school, I got a great education there, some of the classes were challenging, and the students weren't dummies, some MSU grads become successful. On the other hand, Michigan is an ELITE school, where success is the expectation. 

dupont circle

March 12th, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^

Nailed it. And I think you're being generous in your characterization of the average Broad student. I know many extremely vacant sorority girls with supply chain degrees and meathead dbag idiots with Broad marketing degrees. And yes, they all thought/think they are peers to Ross.

DrewGOBLUE

March 12th, 2015 at 4:07 AM ^

I've always gotten the very strong impression that the manner in which the MSU contingent conducts themselves when it comes to athletics is largely rooted in the sense of insecurity a great deal of them develop as they feel their university is caught in UofM's shadow, especially regarding academics.

And when you think about it, is there another state in the country with two major universities that have as large a gap in academic prestige as UM and MSU, yet also happen to be major athletic rivals? It seems like the perfect storm for the animosity to spill over to sports. The only other situation where I think I comparable dynamic between schools may exist would involve UNC and NC State.

So with Michigan people and Sparty folks being so naturally intertwined, it makes pretty good sense that all too often you hear the same old narratives - "accepted to both schools" or "U of M didn't have my major" or "I would have gotten into Michigan, but wanted MSU so I didn't apply." Sure, this stuff is true in some cases, but you also know that a heck of a lot more often, it's simply not.

Quite frankly, my hunch is that regardless of what happens in football and basketball, the little brother tag will inevitably continue to stick for quite some time.