Top university in your city/general area

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

They were good enough at the graduate level to attract a faculty member named Albert Einstein.

Here's a somewhat objective way to rank schools: Nobel lauriates that are or have been on the faculty, and Princeton does pretty well. Undergrad teaching usually doesn't attract Nobel candidates so much as research and teaching grad students.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ty_affiliation

Ah yes, I'm familiar with this list, often brought out by Cal grads (along with the list of elements named after each university...).

[pj3000]

Nobel faculty members is an interesting measure to consider, and certainly a good indicator of the high quality of an institution.

Though I do wonder how often Nobel laureates are actually closely involved with the university.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Nobel faculty members is an interesting measure to consider, and certainly a good indicator of the high quality of an institution.

Though I do wonder how often Nobel laureates are actually closely involved with the university.

This is counting alumni, "short term appointments" (postdocs, visiting professor) and "long-term appointments" (professors). So most Nobel Laureates are counted several times, since it's pretty rare for a someone to do undergrad, grad school, postdoc, and faculty all at the same institute. (Some schools do have "lifers", like MIT, but I don't think any of the Nobel laureates are lifers. Rainier Weiss is close, with a BS, PhD and faculty position at MIT, but he did a postdoc at Berkeley and had a short-term teaching position at Tufts).

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by craigs

When I was first college shopping, Princeton proudly touted its focus on undergraduate education as a feature and not a bug. It was for that reason that Princeton dominated the (undergrad) lists for many years. I'm not affiliated with them, just saying it was once a reason freshmen would choose it over other elite universities.

Princeton is more undergraduate-focused than some of the other Ivies (but Dartmouth and Brown even more so) but has a significantly higher acceptance rate than Harvard and Columbia and significantly lower yield (% of accepted students who matriculate) than Harvard and Yale, suggesting that Princeton, if anything, somewhat under performs relative to its closest peers.

But I really don't think this is much of a difference. All of the Ivies are resourced so that undergrads aren't gonna be neglected, and I think it can be argued that research-oriented universities (say Stanford) offer opportunities that undergraduate-focused institutions (say Dartmouth) don't. And Princeton has an outstanding faculty, by any measure. There are maybe a half dozen schools on the planet that can assuredly claim, with a straight face, that they're Princeton's equal.

[dc_denizen]

this is princeton these days, mired in woke politics

https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/29...d-free-speech/

not somewhere I'd like to send my kids

[Crawford]

Princeton, traditionally, was considered the most conservative of the elite Ivies. Nowadays, I doubt there's a huge difference in student bodies, but Princeton still probably has the most prevalent WASP old boys feel. They still have the social clubs and secret societies, moreso than the others.

[MolsonExport]

I gave a lecture at Harvard once. Therefore it must rank highly.

[kool maudit]

I was surprised to learn that Karolinska ranks above Uppsala.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Princeton is more undergraduate-focused than some of the other Ivies (but Dartmouth and Brown even more so)

I'm sure there's ways it could be argued, but it seems that Brown and Dartmouth have significantly greater offerings on the graduate scale than Princeton does, so I'm not sure how they could be more undergrad-focused on a practical level. Dartmouth has both medical and business schools. Brown has a medical school. These are the "flagships" of Dartmouth and Brown, and they market themselves accordingly. And both have a rather wide range of graduate programs in the sciences and humanities. I always thought Brown had a relatively high % of grad students, but I could be wrong.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

this is princeton these days, mired in woke politics

https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/29...d-free-speech/

not somewhere I'd like to send my kids

I guess you aren't sending your kids to college lol.

[MolsonExport]

Ranking institutions by the number of Nobel laureates is incredibly lazy, and utterly lacks even a scintilla of construct validity.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Ranking institutions by the number of Nobel laureates is incredibly lazy, and utterly lacks even a scintilla of construct validity.

Scintilla of construct validity!

Thank you for putting these words together to kick my brain into gear this morning.

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Villanova is not considered to be top school. It is a good Catholic school, but it is not nearly comprehensive enough in its offerings or output to be in any upper tier. You could put your question marks and exclamation points after it as well.

Geez - what's your beef with Villanova? It's definitely a good school.

I'm not saying US News is the end all be all, but it's a pretty decent ranking system for schools.

Villanova has a pretty good business school, which is what it's known for. Also, good engineering and law schools. You can also go to art school, nursing or professional studies at Villanova. I would say that's pretty comprehensive offerings. Plus, it has a top ranked basketball team.

Not that I really care much, but US News only started recently adding catholic private schools to the rankings a few years back, which is why it suddenly popped up when it wasn't there before. Still, it deserves a high ranked spot regardless of it being a catholic private school.

[summersm343]

Philadelphia Area

University of Pennsylvania is the top dog in the city and the Philly Region.

Temple University and Drexel University are other big players in the city limits.

Villanova is the top dog on the Main Line - wealthy western burbs and towns of Philly.

University of Delaware is also a big player in the region, in the Philly Metro, and about 30-40 minutes from Center City.

Princeton is close to Philly, but technically part of the "NYC CSA." Penn State and Rutgers also have big presences and satellite campuses in the Philly Metro on the PA and NJ sides respectively, despite their main campuses being located in Central, PA and Central, NJ.

[Labtec]

Originally Posted by Ric 0_0

In Atlanta it's Emory and GA Tech tied for 1st with UGA quickly catching up.

Georgia State has a good business school and Atlanta also has many historically Black colleges.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Ranking institutions by the number of Nobel laureates is incredibly lazy, and utterly lacks even a scintilla of construct validity.

What's YOUR objective method, free of opinion (which the US News rankings are full of)?

There are possibilities but I'll let you tell us which you favor and the rankings that result.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Scintilla of construct validity!

Thank you for putting these words together to kick my brain into gear this morning.

It's Canadian. Get an interpreter.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Any ranking that would have my undergraduate alma mater tied for 125 nationally is questionable. At best, it's an extremely overpriced private college and at worst, it's the place Orange County kids attend when they're too stupid and/or aren't qualified enough to get into USC or UCLA's film schools.

Also, Joel Kotkin is a professor there.

[Crawford]

I don't think the Nobel list is total trash, as it likely matters to faculty, and to a much lesser extent, PhDs. It also seems to correlate pretty heavily with reputational rankings.

But it probably shouldn't impact undergrad rankings.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Geez - what's your beef with Villanova? It's definitely a good school.

I'm not saying US News is the end all be all, but it's a pretty decent ranking system for schools.

Villanova has a pretty good business school, which is what it's known for. Also, good engineering and law schools. You can also go to art school, nursing or professional studies at Villanova. I would say that's pretty comprehensive offerings. Plus, it has a top ranked basketball team.

Not that I really care much, but US News only started recently adding catholic private schools to the rankings a few years back, which is why it suddenly popped up when it wasn't there before. Still, it deserves a high ranked spot regardless of it being a catholic private school.

Villanova is a good school, and I said as much. Though in my opinion, based on my experience attending and teaching/researching at numerous universities in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, it is not one of the top 50 schools in the US. It is arguably not one of the top 5 in the state.

It would be very hard to legitimately defend USNWR as a “pretty decent” ranking system for schools. It’s widely regarded as crap, with parameters and weights changing every year, and often completely eliminated from/added to the metrics arbitrarily. The methodology was developed to sell magazines in as many areas of the country as possible, and now it is to garner maximum ad revenue in as many areas of the country as possible.

I have no “beef” with Villanova. But it does not deserve the high academic ranking it received this year, regardless of how good It’s basketball team is.