gwkrlghl

March 10th, 2014 at 12:12 PM ^

The scores are based on the number of times an institution is cited by respondents as being the best in their field. The number one institution, Harvard University, was selected most often. The scores for all other institutions in the table are expressed as a percentage of Harvard’s, set at 100. For example, the University of Oxford received 67.8 per cent of the number of nominations that Harvard received, giving it a score of 67.8 against Harvard’s 100.

So I guess that's why the scores plummet after the top 6 - you only get points for someone thinking you're #1 in a field. Seems like that's subject to unreliable results.

MGoRob

March 10th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^

Yeah, because Illinois is sooo talked about outside the US. /s  I guess from my viewpoint Northwestern has arguably the top journalism school in the country.  Plus a top20 engineering program.

As for the poster below me... where does the article say it's based on graduate work only?  I must have missed that.

ZooWolverine

March 10th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^

Remember that this is entirely about grad school, and that breadth is really important. It doesn't surprise me much that Illinois would have a broader set of top grad programs than a much smaller university, as great as Northwestern is.

One small data point also: Northwestern places a huge emphasis on undergrads being taught by faculty (at least when my wife was there a decade ago). This is great for undergrads, but probably a fairly big drag on grad students, who often get funding by teaching.

Jon06

March 10th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^

I'm pretty sure Northwestern funds their grads. Not having to teach more than some minimal amount to prove competence is generally good for graduate students, who (in most cases) are there to learn and research much more than they are there to teach.

BlueCE

March 10th, 2014 at 12:30 PM ^

As much as I like seeing UM ranked so high in the World, these lists are kind of useless and put together by randoms to get clicks. UCLA is great but I don't think even a UCLA alumn would say they are a top 10 in the world.  Berkeley ahead of Princeton in reputation? And the delta b/w Harvard and the others is also completely exagerated. 



These rankings have become like Buzzfeed, just lists put together by some random intern with the purpose of getting people to share them on social media.

 

And the metric they say they use "number of times cited" (which already makes no sense) is totally biased towards larger institutions...  These rankings are just a total joke (plus we all know UM is #1)

Hardware Sushi

March 10th, 2014 at 2:38 PM ^

That UChicago and Johns Hopkins are part of the CIC, which is sorta B1G.

Hopkins will actually be playing a D1 sport for the Big Ten, which is cool. And counting them, PSU and Maryland in the Big Ten lax league, we will have 3 of the top 7 lax teams (according to current rankings).

Muttley

March 10th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^

 

UNIVERSITY RANK BIG RANK
Michigan 15 1
Illinois 23 2
Wisconsin 28 3
Northwestern 37 4
Penn State(YTPSU!) 39! 5
Purdue 48 6
Minnesota 51-60 7
Ohio 51-60 7
Michigan State 61-70 9  
Indiana 71-80 10
Maryland 81-90 11
Rutgers 91-100 12

Not listed: Iowa, Nebraska

"list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands."

It was a nice read until I saw PSU @39.  Nothing against PSU, but I would have expected them to fall around or below MSU & Indiana.

.

bronxblue

March 10th, 2014 at 6:11 PM ^

It's a nice ranking, but it reads like a who's who list as much as anything else.  Yes, big-name schools earn that reputation to an extent because they do good work and get noticed, and I'm happy UM is well-regarded, but I don't know, NW is a REALLY good school that seems to be cast down with the sodomites, er, UT, which seems off to me.