"Where the "Brains Are"--Most Important University Towns/Cities

[Labtec]

Originally Posted by SlidellWx

Following Steely Dan's ranking, here is the breakdown for the South for institutions ranked in the top 200 national universities. There are 49 institutions that fell into this category across the South.

public schools are regular text
private schools are bolded
catholic schools are also italicized

#10. Duke University - Durham
#13. Vanderbilt University - Nashville
#15. Rice University - Houston
#22. Emory University - Atlanta
#25. University of Virginia - Charlottesville

#29. University of Florida - Gainesville
#29. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
#29. Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem
#38. University of Texas - Austin
#41. William & Mary - Williamsburg
#44. Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta
#44. Tulane University - New Orleans
#49. University of Georgia - Athens

#55. Florida State University - Tallahassee
#55. University of Miami - Miami
#62. Virginia Tech - Blacksburg
#67. Texas A&M University - College Station
#72. North Carolina State University - Raleigh
#72. Southern Methodist University - Dallas

#77. Baylor University - Waco
#77. Clemson University- Clemson
#89. Elon University - Elon, NC
#89. Texas Christian University - Fort Worth
#97. Auburn University - Auburn
#97. University of South Florida - Tampa

#115. University of South Carolina - Columbia
#115. University of Tennessee - Knoxville
#127. Samford University - Birmingham
#127. University of Oklahoma - Norman
#137. George Mason University - Fairfax, VA
#137. University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
#137. University of Alabama at Birmingham - Birmingham
#137. University of Central Florida - Orlando
#137. University of Kentucky - Lexington
#137. University of Tulsa - Tulsa

#151. Florida International University - Miami
#151. James Madison University - Harrisonburg, VA
#151. University of Mississippi - Oxford
#151. University of Texas at Dallas - Richardson
#161. Mercer University - Macon
#166. Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond

#176. Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge
#176. University of Arkansas - Fayetteville
#182. Belmont Unversity - Nashville
#182. Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
#182. University of Houston - Houston
#182. University of Louisville - Louisville
#194. Mississippi State University - Starkville
#194. Union University - Jackson, TN

There is actually a fairly large geographic spread of the top universities in the South with only a few metros garnering 2 to 3 top tier universities. These include Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami, Nashville, and Birmingham. Most of the top ranked public institutions are land grant schools that are still located in smaller college towns and cities.

There's also Mercer University (ranked 166th), an hour south of Atlanta and Georgia State University downtown, just outside the top 200 (and the largest enrollment in Georgia). Atlanta has some of the top Historical Black Colleges with many famous alumni.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by dave8721

University of South Florida squeezes in at #97. Founded in 1956.

Oh cool!

So along with the 5 newer UC system schools and UIC, that makes 7 post-war universities that now rank in the top 100.

I suppose it's no coincidence that they're all public universities.

[Shawn]

Brandeis was founded in 1948, and it's #44 nationally.

[SlidellWx]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

curious about catholic universities of note in the south, i did find this list of jesuit universities in the US on wikipedia, and the only one in the south is Loyola University New Orleans, which ranks just barely outside of USNWR's top 200 national universities at #202.

the majority of major cities in the other 3 macro-regions all tend to have at least one highly ranked catholic university, and with a few notable exceptions, the majority of them are jesuit.

the jesuits seemed extremely inclined to build their universities in or very adjacent to major urban centers, but not in the south, except for new orleans for obvious reasons.

Yup. New Orleans has two Catholic universities which is exceedingly rare in the South. Loyola University of New Orleans and Xavier University of New Orleans. As mentioned, Loyola just missed the mark at #202, and Xavier is ranked 5th among HBCU's nationally. Xavier is the only historically black Catholic university in the nation.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Brandeis was founded in 1948, and it's #44 nationally.

Oh, wow!

I would've never guessed Brandies was founded post-war.

And the only one of the eight so far that's not public.

[mrnyc]

no oberlin, no major city orchestras.

that is all.

[dimondpark]

Two Criteria Here:
1. Urban Areas with 200,000+ Bachelor Degrees Reported, 2021
2. 2010 Urban Area Borders

Since the 2020 borders aren't exactly known yet, I just used the 2010 borders, although judging by history, I don't suspect that much change so I feel comfortable putting this out


Urban Areas by Bachelor Degrees Per Square Mile, 2021:
San Francisco-Oakland, CA 2,804
San Jose, CA 2,618
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 1,922
New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT 1,844
Mission Viejo-Lake Forest-San Clemente, CA 1,667
Washington, DC-VA-MD 1,630
Concord, CA 1,523
Denver-Aurora, CO 1,465
Portland, OR-WA 1,391
Honolulu, HI 1,352
San Diego, CA 1,340
Seattle, WA 1,331
Miami, FL 1,308
Austin, TX 1,294
Chicago, IL-IN 1,095
Salt Lake City-West Valley City, UT 1,074
Sacramento, CA 1,065
Baltimore, MD 1,039
Las Vegas-Henderson, NV 1,036
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN-WI 1,036
Columbus, OH 966
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ 944
Boston, MA-NH-RI 941
New Orleans, LA 928
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 909
Dallas-Ft Worth-Arlington, TX 882
Albuquerque, NM 872
Raleigh, NC 853
Houston, TX 840
Omaha, NE-IA 826
Orlando, FL 819
Tampa-St Petersburg, FL 798
Virginia Beach, VA 753
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT-NY 744
Buffalo, NY 744
Kansas City, MO-KS 742
Milwaukee, WI 741
Detroit, MI 733
San Antonio, TX 729
Charlotte, NC-SC 727
St Louis, MO-IL 712
Rochester, NY 709
Indianapolis, IN 699
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 696
Albany-Schenectady, NY 677
Richmond, VA 670
Nashville-Davidson, TN 667
Pittsburgh, PA 658
Cleveland, OH 646
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 634
Atlanta, GA 632
Tucson, AZ 623
Providence, RI-MA 596
Jacksonville, FL 575
Louisville, KY-IN 556
Riverside-San Bernadino, CA 552
Oklahoma City, OK 548
Hartford, CT 538
Memphis, TN-MS-AR 482
Birmingham, AL 432

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Philadelphia is also heavy hitter. I'm not sure how I'd rank any particular metro after Boston, but Philadelphia would be close to the top of the list.

Depends on if you count Princeton. Otherwise, it’s:

UPenn
Villanova
Drexel
Temple

Swarthmore
Haverford
Bryn Mawr

Curtis Institute

[Quixote]

As someone who took a stab at archit(orture) and this being SSP:



















https://www.architecturalrecord.com/...e-schools-2020

[dimondpark]

Doctoral Degrees by Urban Area, 2021
10,000+
New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT 245,453
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 132,490
Washington, DC-VA-MD 125,870
Boston, MA-MA-NH 118,274
Chicago, IL-IN 102,616
San Francisco-Oakland, CA 95,026
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 78,669
Atlanta, GA 68,512
Houston, TX 66,845
Miami, FL 64,618
San Jose, CA 59,618
Seattle, WA 58,627
San Diego, CA 57,472
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 46,022
Phoenix-Mesa, AZ 43,674
Baltimore, MD 40,027
Portland, OR-WA 38,975
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN-WI 38,925
Denver-Aurora, CO 35,629
Tampa-St Petersburg, FL 31,509
Detroit, MI 30,063
St Louis, MO-IL 26,160
Pittsburgh, PA 25,891
Austin, TX 25,621
Raleigh, NC 21,169
Cleveland, OH 20,088
Columbus, OH 19,839
Orlando, FL 19,250
Sacramento, CA 18,228
Durham, NC 18,192
Nashville-Davidson, TN 17,729
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 17,544
Indianapolis, IN 16,785
Kansas City, MO-KS 16,238
Concord, CA 16,027
Providence, RI-MA 15,565
Las Vegas-Henderson, NV 15,303
Milwaukee, WI 15,103
Virginia Beach, VA 14,297
Tucson, AZ 14,251
Madison, WI 14,193
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT 13,890
Ann Arbor, MI 13,719
Richmond, VA 13,672
Hartford, CT 12,269
Charlotte, NC-SC 12,600
Buffalo, NY 12,155
Louisville, KY-IN 11,665
New Haven, CT 11,663
Salt Lake City-West Valley City, UT 11,294
Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 11,651
Birmingham, AL 10,078
New Orleans, LA 10,806
Memphis, TN-MS-AR 10,678
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 10,211
Rochester, NY 10,167

[Quixote]

Going by graduate program rankings, what really sticks out is Stanford/Cal consistently ranking in the top 10 across just about every major field, while Harvard/MIT don't.

Also, I'd rank UCLA at about the same level as Duke/Northwestern/Cornell/Michigan — above the less-prestigious Ivy Leagues Brown and Dartmouth and the likes of Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, and UNC... and certainly a notch above Vanderbilt, Rice, Washington University, and Notre Dame, which are higher in the national rankings.

Best Business Schools

MBA

#1 UChicago
#1 UPenn
#3 Northwestern
#3 Stanford
#5 Harvard
#5 MIT
#7 Yale
#8 Columbia
#8 Cal
#10 Michigan
#11 Dartmouth
#12 Duke
#12 NYU
#14 Virginia
#15 Cornell
#16 Carnegie Mellon
#17 UCLA
#18 Texas
#19 UNC
#19 USC

Notre Dame and Vanderbilt are tied for #25, Rice is #27.

Part-Time MBA

#1 UChicago
#2 Cal
#3 Northwestern
#4 NYU
#5 UCLA
#6 Carnegie Mellon
#7 Michigan
#8 Texas
#9 USC
#10 Washington

Rice is #11, Washington University #19.


Best Education Schools

#1 UPenn
#2 Harvard
#3 UCLA
#4 NYU
#5 Wisconsin
#5 Vanderbilt
#7 Columbia
#8 Michigan
#9 Stanford
#10 UC Irvine
#11 Northwestern

#14 Johns Hopkins

#21 Cal

#23 UNC


Best Engineering Schools

#1 MIT
#2 Stanford
#3 Berkeley
#4 Carnegie Mellon
#4 Purdue
#6 Texas
#7 Caltech
#7 Georgia Institute
#9 Michigan
#10 Texas A&M
#10 UCSD
#10 Illinois
#13 Columbia
#13 Cornell
#15 USC
#16 Johns Hopkins
#16 UCLA
#18 Northwestern
#18 UPenn
#20 Princeton
#21 Harvard

#24 Duke
#24 Washington

Rice is #27, Vanderbilt #43, Notre Dame and Washington University #48.


Best Law Schools

#1 Yale
#2 Stanford
#3 UChicago
#4 Columbia
#4 Harvard
#6 UPenn
#7 NYU
#8 Virginia
#9 Cal
#10 Michigan
#11 Duke
#12 Cornell
#13 Northwestern
#14 Georgetown
#15 UCLA
#16 Washington University

#17 Vanderbilt

#20 USC

Notre Dame is #25.


Best Medical Schools

Research

#1 Harvard
#2 NYU
#3 Columbia
#3 Johns Hopkins
#3 UCSF
#6 Duke
#6 UPenn
#8 Stanford
#9 Washington
#10 Yale
#11 Icahn (New York)
#11 Washington University
#13 Vanderbilt
#14 Cornell
#14 Mayo Clinic
#14 Pittsburgh
#17 Northwestern
#17 Michigan
#19 UCLA
#20 UCSD
#20 UChicago

USC is #28, Brown is #35, and Dartmouth #47.

Primary Care

#1 Washington
#2 UCSF
#3 Minnesota
#4 Oregon Health
#5 UNC
#6 Colorado
#7 Nebrask
#8 UC Davis
#9 Harvard
#10 Kansas
#10 Massachusetts (Worcester)
#10 Pittsburgh
#13 UCLA
#14 Brown

#20 Michigan
#20 UPenn

#30 Stanford
#30 UChicago

#36 Darthmouth
#36 Mayo Clinic

#43 Vanderbilt
#43 Northwestern

#45 Cornell

#48 NYU

#52 Johns Hopkins
#52 USC

#68 Yale

#75 Columbia

#78 Duke


Best Nursing Schools

Master's

#1 Johns Hopkins
#2 Duke
#2 Emory
#4 UPenn
#5 Washington
#6 Columbia
#7 OSU
#8 Michigan
#8 UNC
#8 Vanderbilt
#11 Case Western
#11 UCSF
#13 Illinois
#13 Virginia
#15 NYU
#15 Alabama (Birmingham)
#17 Rush (Chicago)
#18 Rutgers (Newark)
#19 UCLA
#20 Yale

Doctorate

#1 Johns Hopkins
#2 Duke
#2 Rush
#2 Washington
#5 Columbia
#6 Emory
#7 Michigan
#7 Minnesota
#7 Pittsburgh
#7 Vanderbilt

#14 UNC

#21 Yale

#23 NYU

#35 UCSF


Best Public Affairs Schools

#1 Indiana
#2 Syracuse
#3 Harvard
#3 Cal
#3 Georgia
#3 USC
#3 Washington
#8 UChicago
#8 Michigan
#10 American
#10 Texas
#12 ASU
#12 Carnegie Mellon
#12 Georgetown
#12 George Washington
#12 NYU
#12 Princeton
#12 UCLA
#12 Minnesota
#20 Georgia State
#20 OSU
#20 UNC
#23 Columbia
#23 Duke

#35 Johns Hopkins (You would think it would rank near the top)

#39 Cornell


Best Science Schools

Biological Sciences

#1 Harvard
#1 Stanford
#3 Caltech
#3 MIT
#3 Cal
#6 Johns Hopkins
#6 Princeton
#6 Yale
#9 Scripps
#9 UCSF
#11 Columbia
#11 Cornell
#11 Duke
#11 UChicago
#15 UPenn
#15 Washington University
#17 Cornell
#17 Rockefeller
#17 UC Davis
#17 UCLA
#17 UCSD
#17 Wisconsin

#25 UNC
#25 Vanderbilt

#32 Northwestern
#32 UC Irvine

#37 Brown
#37 Carnegie Mellon
#37 Dartmouth

#46 Mayo Clinic
#46 NYU
#46 USC

Chemistry

#1 MIT
#2 Caltech
#2 Stanford
#2 Cal
#5 Harvard
#6 Scripps
#7 Northwestern
#7 Princeton
#7 UChicago
#7 Illinois
#11 Cornell
#12 Columbia
#12 Yale
#14 UCLA
#14 Michigan
#14 Wisconsin
#17 UNC
#17 UPenn
#17 Texas
#20 UC Irvine

#21 Johns Hopkins
#21 Cornell

#25 UCSF

#35 Duke
#35 Rice

#41 USC

#42 Carnegie Mellon
#42 Notre Dame
#42 Vanderbilt
#42 Washington University

#55 NYU

#62 Brown

Computer Science

#1 MIT
#2 Carnegie Mellon
#2 Stanford
#2 Cal
#5 Illinois
#6 Cornell
#6 Georgia Institute
#6 Washington
#9 Princeton
#9 Texas
#11 Caltech
#11 Columbia
#11 UCLA
#11 Michigan
#16 Harvard
#17 UPenn
#20 Johns Hopkins
#20 Yale
#23 Duke
#23 USC
#26 Brown
#26 UNC
#28 Northwestern
#28 Rice
#28 UC Irvine
#28 Chicago

#38 NYU

#49 Dartmouth
#49 Notre Dame

#55 Vanderbilt

Earth Science

#1 Caltech
#2 MIT
#2 Stanford
#2 Cal
#5 Columbia

#6 Michigan

#12 Brown
#12 Harvard
#12 Princeton
#12 UCLA

#19 UChicago
#19 Yale

#24 Cornell
#24 Rice

#28 USC
#28 Washington University

#36 Duke
#36 Northwestern
#36 UC Irvine

#40 Johns Hopkins

#51 Dartmouth
#51 UNC

Mathematics

#1 MIT
#1 Princeton
#3 Harvard
#3 Stanford
#3 Cal
#3 UChicago
#7 Caltech
#7 Columbia
#7 NYU
#7 UCLA
#11 Michigan
#12 Cornell
#12 Yale
#14 Brown

#16 Northwestern

#17 Duke
#17 UPenn

#21 Carnegie Mellon
#21 Johns Hopkins

#29 Rice
#29 UNC

#37 UC Irvine

#39 NotreDame
#39 USC

#47 Vanderbilt

#59 Dartmouth

Physics

#1 Stanford
#2 Caltech
#2 Harvard
#2 MIT
#2 Princeton
#2 Cal
#7 UChicago
#8 Cornell
#9 Columbia

#11 UPenn
#11 Yale

#15 Johns Hopkins
#15 Michigan

#18 UCLA

#20 Northwestern

#28 Brown
#28 Duke
#28 Rice

#32 Carnegie Mellon
#32 NYU

#38 UC Irvine
#38 UNC

#41 Notre Dame
#41 Washington University

Statistics

#1 Stanford
#2 Cal
#3 Harvard
#3 UChicago
#5 Carnegie Mellon
#5 Columbia
#7 Duke
#7 Michigan
#7 UPenn

#11 UNC

#13 Cornell
#13 Yale

#19 UCLA

#27 UC Irvine

#29 Rice

#37 NYU
#37 Northwestern

#61 Notre Dame


Best Social Sciences and Humanities Schools

Economics

#1 Harvard
#1 MIT
#1 Stanford
#4 Princeton
#4 Cal
#4 UChicago
#4 Yale
#8 Northwestern
#9 Columbia
#9 UPenn
#11 NYU
#12 UCLA
#12 Michigan
#14 Caltech
#14 Cornell

#18 Duke

#20 Brown

#21 Carnegie Mellon

#22 Johns Hopkins

#30 UNC
#30 Vanderbilt
#30 Washington University

#38 Rice
#38 UC Irvine
#38 USC

English

#1 Cal
#1 Yale
#3 Harvard
#3 Princeton
#3 Stanford
#3 UChicago
#3 UPenn
#8 Columbia
#8 Cornell
#8 Michigan
#11 UCLA

#13 Brown
#13 Duke
#13 Johns Hopkins
#13 Northwestern

#20 NYU
#20 UC Irvine
#20 UNC

#26 Vanderbilt

#30 Washington University

#32 Notre Dame
#32 USC

#41 Carnegie Mellon
#41 Rice

History

#1 Cal
#2 Princeton
#2 Michigan
#2 Yale
#5 Columbia
#5 Stanford
#5 UCLA
#5 UChicago
#9 Harvard
#10 Johns Hopkins
#11 Cornell
#11 UNC
#11 UPenn

#16 NYU
#16 Northwestern

#18 Brown
#18 Duke

#24 Vanderbilt

#30 UC Irvine

#34 Washington University

#38 Rice
#38 USC
#38 Carnegie Mellon

#38 Notre Dame

Political Science

#1 Stanford
#2 Harvard
#2 Princeton
#4 Cal
#4 Michigan
#6 Yale
#7 MIT
#8 Columbia
#10 Duke
#10 UChicago
#10 UCLA
#12 UNC
#12 Washington University
#15 Cornell
#15 NYU

#19 Northwestern
#19 UPenn
#19 Vanderbilt

#28 Rice

#37 Notre Dame

#41 Brown
#41 Johns Hopkins (go figure)
#41 UC Irvine

Psychology

#1 Stanford
#1 Cal
#3 Harvard
#3 UCLA
#3 Michigan
#6 Princeton
#6 Yale
#9 Cornell
#9 Northwestern

#12 Columbia
#12 Duke
#12 Johns Hopkins
#12 UChicago
#12 UPenn
#12 Vanderbilt

#23 Brown
#23 Carnegie Mellon
#23 Washington University

#30 NYU
#30 UC Irvine

#35 USC

#46 Dartmouth
#46 Notre Dame

#51 Rice

Sociology

#1 Cal
#2 Harvard
#2 Princeton
#2 Michigan
#5 Stanford
#6 UCLA
#7 Northwestern
#7 UChicago
#7 UNC

#11 Columbia

#13 Duke
#13 NYU
#13 UPenn

#16 Cornell

#18 Yale

#20 Brown
#20 UC Irvine

#26 Notre Dame

#29 Johns Hopkins

#34 Rice
#34 USC
#34 Vanderbilt

[goat314]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Yeah... I went back and forth on Denver, and it was the last one off. Now that I think about it more, it should be in there... I was totally forgetting about CO School of Mines.

A case can definitely be made for Cleveland and St. Louis in tier 2... I was wavering on bumping both of them up. (I'm considering U of Michigan for Detroit, so that's why Detroit makes it. Houston has Rice obviously, but also UH -- which is enormous, two HBCUs, 3 medical schools, Sam Houston State nearby, A&M not all that far away either. Not sure Cleveland and St. Louis can quite match that... totally subjective on my part though... maybe if they had a major public research university as well?)

I don't know much about Cleveland, but St. Louis also has 1 HBCU, 2 medical schools, a pharmacy school, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and Webster University (which has a huge online presence now).

[Docere]

Bay Area is #2 for doctorates (154,000) when you combine San Francisco and San Jose.

[Quixote]

Harvard/MIT vs. Stanford/Cal. Cal is very, very impressive. It appears Harvard doesn't perform as well in the Engineering and one very important social science field (History) in the way that both Stanford and Cal also perform highly in Business and Law.

Harvard

#5 (tied) MBA
#2 Education
#21 Engineering
#4 Law
#1 Medicine (Research)
#9 Medicine (Primary care)
#3 Public Affairs
#1 (tied) Biological Sciences
#5 Chemistry
#16 Computer Science
#12 (tied) Earth Science
#3 (tied) Mathematics
#2 (tied) Physics
#3 (tied) Statistics
#1 (tied) Economics
#3 (tied) English
#9 History
#2 (tied) Political Science
#3 (tied) Psychology
#2 (tied) Sociology

MIT

#5 (tied) MBA
#1 Engineering
#3 (tied) Biological Sciences
#1 Chemistry
#1 Computer Science
#2 (tied) Earth Science
#1 (tied) Mathematics
#2 (tied) Physics
#1 (tied) Economics
#7 Political Science

Stanford

#3 (tied) MBA
#9 Education
#2 Engineering
#2 Law
#8 Medicine (Research)
#30 Medicine (Primary care)
#1 (tied) Biological Sciences
#2 (tied) Chemistry
#2 (tied) Computer Science
#2 (tied) Earth Science
#3 (tied) Mathematics
#1 Physics
#1 Statistics
#1 (tied) Economics
#3 (tied) English
#5 (tied) History
#1 Political Science
#1 (tied) Psychology
#2 (tied) Sociology

Cal

#8 (tied) MBA
#2 Part-time MBA
#21 Education
#3 Engineering
#9 Law
#3 (tied) Public Affairs
#3 (tied) Biological Sciences
#2 (tied) Chemistry
#2 (tied) Computer Science
#2 (tied) Earth Science
#3 (tied) Mathematics
#2 (tied) Physics
#2 Statistics
#4 (tied) Economics
#1 (tied) English
#1 History
#4 (tied) Political Science
#1 (tied) Psychology
#1 Sociology

[Quixote]

NYC-area schools:

Yale

#7 MBA
#1 Law
#10 Medicine (Research)
#68 Medicine (Primary care)
#20 Nursing (Master's)
#21 Nursing (Doctorate)
#6 (tied) Biological Sciences
#12 (tied) Chemistry
#20 (tied) Computer Science
#19 (tied) Earth Science
#12 (tied) Mathematics
#11 (tied) Physics
#13 (tied) Statistics
#4 (tied) Economics
#1 (tied) English
#2 (tied) History
#6 Political Science
#6 (tied) Psychology
#18 Sociology

Princeton

#20 Engineering
#12 (tied) Public Affairs
#6 (tied) Biological Sciences
#7 (tied) Chemistry
#9 (tied) Computer Science
#12 (tied Earth Science
#1 (tied) Mathematics
#2 (tied) Physics
#4 (tied) Economics
#3 (tied) English
#2 (tied) History
#2 (tied) Political Science
#6 (tied) Psychology
#2 (tied) Sociology

Columbia

#8 MBA
#7 Education
#13 (tied) Engineering
#4 (tied) Law
#3 (tied) Medicine (Research)
#75 Medicine (Primary care)
#6 Nursing (Master's)
#5 Nursing (Doctorate)
#23 (tied) Public Affairs
#11 (tied) Biological Sciences
#12 (tied) Chemistry
#11 (tied) Computer Science
#5 Earth Science
#7 (tied) Mathematics
#9 Physics
#5 (tied) Statistics
#9 (tied) Economics
#8 (tied) English
#5 (tied) History
#8 Political Science
#12 (tied) Psychology
#11 Sociology

NYU

#12 (tied) MBA
#4 Part-time MBA
#4 Education
#7 Law
#2 Medicine (Research)
#48 Medicine (Primary care)
#15 (tied) Nursing (Master's)
#23 Nursing (Doctorate)
#12 (tied) Public Affairs
#46 (tied) Biological Sciences
#55 Chemistry
#38 Computer Science
#7 (tied) Mathematics
#32 (tied) Physics
#37 (tied) Statistics
#11 Economics
#20 (tied) English
#16 (tied) History
#15 (tied) Political Science
#30 (tied) Psychology
#13 (tied) Sociology

[Quixote]

UPenn

#1 (tied) MBA
#1 Education
#18 (tied) Engineering
#6 Law
#6 Medicine (Research)
#20 (tied) Medicine (Primary care)
#4 Nursing (Master's)
#15 (tied) Biological Sciences
#17 (tied) Chemistry
#17 Computer Science
#17 (tied) Mathematics
#11 (tied) Physics
#7 (tied) Statistics
#9 (tied) Economics
#3 (tied) English
#11 (tied) History
#19 (tied) Political Science
#12 (tied) Psychology
#13 (tied) Sociology

All of this would be great to visualize in a spreadsheet, which I'll create.

[pj3000]

Stop pasting BS rankings.

Thread is about cities, not university rankings. It’s tired. Been done over and over and over again on here. Stop.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Going by graduate program rankings, what really sticks out is Stanford/Cal consistently ranking in the top 10 across just about every major field, while Harvard/MIT don't.

Also, I'd rank UCLA at about the same level as Duke/Northwestern/Cornell/Michigan — above the less-prestigious Ivy Leagues Brown and Dartmouth and the likes of Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, and UNC... and certainly a notch above Vanderbilt, Rice, Washington University, and Notre Dame, which are higher in the national rankings.

This doesn't make any sense. Brown and Dartmouth are undergraduate-focused institutions. Of course they don't have consistently strong graduate rankings, as they barely have any graduate programs. Princeton (and obviously Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore) are in the same boat. Even Harvard and Yale, while they are pretty comprehensive, are nothing like a Michigan or UCLA in terms of offering everything. Cornell is really the only Ivy that does basically everything, and it is ranked well for basically everything.

Huge state universities, are much more likely to have broad graduate strengths than smaller, undergraduate-focused private institutions.

And undergraduate selectivity and prestige doesn't have anything to do with graduate school quality. Princeton is as selective as any school, yet they don't even have law, business or medical schools.

Duke, Northwestern and Cornell are somewhat more prestigious and selective than Michigan or UCLA for undergrad, BTW. There's data on yield and choice, and the former will be chosen over the latter in most cases.

[Quixote]

A few things to note:

1. I excluded Caltech, UCSF, and other small institutions.
2. Beyond the top 25, I excluded Rice, Notre Dame, and Washington University, but included Vanderbilt because it appears in the top 10 in some categories.
3. I also included USC just to see how LA's second major university stacks up to the best of the best (UC Irvine actually ranks higher in a few categories).


(larger)

[Quixote]

Observations:

• It's a bit jarring to see Stanford outrank Harvard even for business and law. I'd still probably give the upper hand to Harvard because of medicine and Mass General.

• These rankings show that an argument could be made for Cal being in the company of MIT/Yale/Princeton, above UPenn, Columbia, and UChicago.

• Brown and Dartmouth are clearly the black sheep among the Ivies.

• UCLA is in the top 20 for every category it ranks in. I feel confident in placing it in the company of Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, Duke, and NYU.

• USC doesn't underperform nearly as much as I thought. Its business and law programs are where you'd expect them to rank. It's medical programs are sub-par, but most of its science and humanities programs are either at level with, slightly behind, or above Duke/NYC/Carnegie/Vanderbilt/Dartmouth.