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New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:52 am
by zxcv
For all you ranking addicts, there's good and bad news:
http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot. ... kings.html

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:46 pm
by Helio
I will never understand why they have a string theory section, but no astrophysics

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:58 am
by fermiboy
These rankings are a joke. How can CalTech be ranked 10 in condensed matter? Only because of their name. For a university of their stature, they are barely doing any research in the field. The deans and chairs get the survey, see CalTech, and say "Oh yeah CalTech must be good in condensed matter, because they're CalTech, they're good at everything." Then I see Arizona isn't even ranked in AMO anymore, but CalTech is. Seriously? CalTech has THREE AMO professors, while Arizona has an entire college of optical sciences. Word to the wise, if you put any stock in these ratings then you are a total dumbass. Get out there and really research the schools, and pick them based on advisers, not on some arbitrary rankings by a publication that doesn't know *** about physics.

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:11 am
by admissionprof
fermiboy wrote:These rankings are a joke. How can CalTech be ranked 10 in condensed matter? Only because of their name. For a university of their stature, they are barely doing any research in the field. The deans and chairs get the survey, see CalTech, and say "Oh yeah CalTech must be good in condensed matter, because they're CalTech, they're good at everything." Then I see Arizona isn't even ranked in AMO anymore, but CalTech is. Seriously? CalTech has THREE AMO professors, while Arizona has an entire college of optical sciences. Word to the wise, if you put any stock in these ratings then you are a total dumbass. Get out there and really research the schools, and pick them based on advisers, not on some arbitrary rankings by a publication that doesn't know *** about physics.
I agree. Many years ago, the top CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies were given a list of institutions and asked to rank their business schools. Princeton came in fourth.

Princeton doesn't have a business school.

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:56 am
by excel
So, what is the moral of the story? Is it: You may graduate from a very strong program for your subject, but still even important academic people (like deans and chairs) will not consider the pedigree of your degree as high as that of a graduate from an "elite" university that is not so strong in your subject?

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:09 pm
by Helio
I am waiting for NRC to finalize my list.... but then again i already have a pretty good idea where to apply... just need to figure out one or two more backup schools