Harvard, Yale Conquer the World

Posted on November 25, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Dye

Unfortunately for U.S. News and World Report, you can only rank U.S. colleges once a year (maybe that’s why they had to go monthly?). But now there’s good news for rankings junkies–U.S. News has released its list of the top colleges in the WORLD. And it looks kinda like that other list, with American schools sweeping 14 of the top-25 spots (and perennial list-toppers Harvard and Yale coming in first and second, respectively). Among the international winners are British schools Cambridge (#3) and Oxford (#4), as well as Australian National University (#16), University of Tokyo (#19), and Canada’s McGill (#20).

But flag-waving patriotism aside, how do you explain how a school like University of Michigan could be ranked #26 in the U.S., but #18 in the world–or how Princeton University could go from #2 in America to #12 in the world, behind schools it beat in the U.S. round like Penn, University of Chicago, and Columbia? The criteria for world excellence seems to be more about the size and quality of a school’s international student and faculty populations, in addition to how often its faculty gets published.

Now that they’ve ranked the world, where will U.S. News have to go for their next rankings? Could Harvard possibly withstand the intergalactic competition? (We’re guessing they’ll find a way.)

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2 Responses to “Harvard, Yale Conquer the World”

  1. Americans Head to the UK for College Degrees : theprereq.com on December 1st, 2008 3:54 pm

    […] U.S. News and World Report was right in starting a global college rankings system. According to The New York Times, more high school students are looking abroad for college options […]

  2. The Crimson No Longer as Well-Endowed : theprereq.com on December 5th, 2008 4:15 pm

    […] even the best college in the world is coming out of this recession unscathed. The Crimson reports that Harvard’s mega-endowment […]

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