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Honestly, these rankings are [always] ridiculous. Clearly there is a need to capture certain metrics and display that as quantitative information, and the diff

Honestly, these rankings are [always] ridiculous. Clearly there is a need to capture certain metrics and display that as quantitative information, and the difference between, say, the top 10 and the 90-100 is probably relevant, but the difference within the top ~20 is so minimal its largely irrelevant. It really galls me when people make decisions about undergraduate or graduate schools (or, probably employees, although this is a position I'm yet to be in) based on these kinds of rankings. Clearly it should factor to some extent (i.e. Harvard vs. Jeremey's University of Rubishville[1]) but there are MANY much more important factors to consider. The irony is that the rankings are 50% opinion based, which basically amounts to identifying where people think are prestigious. I wonder what people use to identify which the prestigious universities are - they can't possible go and visit them all, but if only there were some kind of online ranking they could use to get an idea... [1] When I went to undergraduate, this was the fictional university my younger brother suggested he might end up going to.

jonnathanson 14y ago
The only ranking system that ever seems to matter is the generally assumed ranking within the public consciousness. It doesn't matter if John Doe University emerges from out of nowhere one year to unseat Harvard on some arbitrary list; the general public is still going to assume Harvard is a top school, and probably will not have heard of John Doe U. As for the distinctions among the generally assumed top tier -- be it Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, or what have you -- these seem pretty irrelevant in praxis. Go to the school that interests you the most and is the best fit for you. If you should be so talented and lucky as to get into all of the best schools, you're probably the kind of person whose life isn't going to take a dramatic turn for the worse because some ranking system suddenly places your alma mater at #2 or #3. The only two groups who place serious stock in the rankings are high schoolers and the chronically insecure.

jonnathanson 14y ago

The only ranking system that ever seems to matter is the generally assumed ranking within the public consciousness. It doesn't matter if John Doe University emerges from out of nowhere one year to unseat Harvard on some arbitrary list; the general public is still going to assume Harvard is a top school, and probably will not have heard of John Doe U. As for the distinctions among the generally assumed top tier -- be it Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, or what have you -- these seem pretty irrelevant in praxis. Go to the school that interests you the most and is the best fit for you. If you should be so talented and lucky as to get into all of the best schools, you're probably the kind of person whose life isn't going to take a dramatic turn for the worse because some ranking system suddenly places your alma mater at #2 or #3. The only two groups who place serious stock in the rankings are high schoolers and the chronically insecure.