UC Berkeley #2, Stanford #3 in Rankings of World Universities (Santa Barbara, Palo Alto: high school, living in)

[mileena]

Stanford and UCSF are tied for fifth for top medical schools - research:

Best Medical Schools | Research Rankings | Top Medical Schools for Research | US News Best Graduate Schools

UCSF is ranked number four for medical schools - primary care:

Best Medical Schools | Primary Care Rankings | Top Medical Schools for Primary Care | US News Best Graduate Schools

I am thinking of going to medical school, and I want to be close to the Bay Area. UC Davis is also a possibility.

[DMenscha]

Well since my son entered UC Berkeley for summer school last week (on an academic scholarship, yeah I'm bragging) I couldn't be happier about a survey like this.

Go Bears indeed!

[CAVA1990]

According to the news report the full rankings will be out 7/29. Assuming the rankings don't change much from last year, I can't wait to post on the Northern VA forum (my home one) how UVA ranked in the 90s, behind the likes of Arizona State. hahahaha.

You can find last and previous year rankings here:

Academic Ranking of World Universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[80skeys]

I have a Stanford professor friend who would criticize these rankings. He says the salaries of non-tenured professors, which average around $60k, are not sufficient to incent them to do as good a job as they should, and in part because of this the overall quality of the Stanford education suffers. He would call into question whether the actual Stanford experience merits a #2 ranking.

My personal opinion is that you can get an outstanding education at these places (Harvard, Stanford, etc) but a little known fact is that you can get an equivalently-outstanding education (depending on your field of study) at some select "unknown" universities. For example, an engineering degree at Colorado School of Mines is every bit as tough and challenging as at MIT, which is good if your goal is only to learn.

[potrerocurious]

To my knowledge, many Yale non-tenured faculty don't get compensated as well as one might imagine, either. It might be the case that the situation at Stanford is on par with the other top universities, once all perks and ancillaries are factored in. There are costs and benefits to teaching in the most distinguished universities.

[barney_rubble]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Two good schools, no doubt, but none of these rankings really mean much. The top school today might not be in the top 20 next year or next month. It also depends on who is doing the study and what is being used as guidelines.

NIta

Your attitude is illogical. Yes, different rankings have different methodologies. This is precisely why one must examine the specific methodology at hand before drawing conclusions on the validity of the ranking.

Originally Posted by 80skeys

I have a Stanford professor friend who would criticize these rankings. He says the salaries of non-tenured professors, which average around $60k, are not sufficient to incent them to do as good a job as they should, and in part because of this the overall quality of the Stanford education suffers. He would call into question whether the actual Stanford experience merits a #2 ranking.

My personal opinion is that you can get an outstanding education at these places (Harvard, Stanford, etc) but a little known fact is that you can get an equivalently-outstanding education (depending on your field of study) at some select "unknown" universities. For example, an engineering degree at Colorado School of Mines is every bit as tough and challenging as at MIT, which is good if your goal is only to learn.

These rankings have little to do with undergraduate education. At the present time, there are no accurate rankings for undergrad education. This is at least partly because there are no uniform standards for what constitutes high-quality undergrad education.

What the ARWU is designed to do - and does very well - is assess the overall academic and research performance of an institution.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

He would call into question whether the actual Stanford experience merits a #2 ranking.

Stanford doesn't have a #2 ranking. It's #3 behind Cal.

[dmode]

Remarkable that 8 UC campuses are featured in the list along with Stanford, Caltech and USC. Way to go CA. Note to CA state legislature: Talent is our competitive advantage, don't f with it..

[JHG722]

I doubt anyone actually thinks Cal is better than Stanford.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Two good schools, no doubt, but none of these rankings really mean much. The top school today might not be in the top 20 next year or next month. It also depends on who is doing the study and what is being used as guidelines.

NIta

Regardless, the Univ of Arkansas won't be in the top 2000 anytime soon