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Of course the first thing I did was to look for the French "grandes ecoles" (Polytechnique, HEC, ENA, mine-Sciences Po, etc…). But they're are not officially cl
by Spearchucker 14y ago
Of course the first thing I did was to look for the French "grandes ecoles" (Polytechnique, HEC, ENA, mine-Sciences Po, etc…). But they're are not officially classed as universities, due to their highly selective process (French universities have a principle of non-selection) they are not included in this ranking. Which to anyone who knows about them is clearly preposterous, especially when far less illustrious French universities are listed in the top 100. Also really bizarre to see Warwick classed at #157 - it’s top for economics in the UK, and has very strong law, history and engineering departments.
Irrespective of their stated calibration criteria, I'm left feeling that "amount of money thrown at university by wealthy alumni" and "general reputation as measured by number of mentions in Hollywood films" are the strongest criteria here, not the level of education actually received.
Practical value is therefore marginal at best. A much more useful analysis would be by subject, across all institutions.
- cdavid 14y agoHighly depends on your criteria. It is pretty common to judge universities through their academic research performance, especially for the prestigious ones, and "grandes ecoles" are pretty terrible in that departement (except for 'ecoles normales', but those are pretty specific). I also consider the level of education given at grandes ecoles to be pretty poor, especially in the prestigious ones. Once accepted in one, you are pretty much guaranteed to get the diploma, and in many of them, you can get out by cheating or studying a couple of hours before the exams. I doubt this changed since I was a student there 10 years ago. In economical terms, GE are much more about signal than human capital.
- anateus 14y agoI see École Normale Supérieure at 59 and École Polytechnique at 62.
- arethuza 14y ago"level of education actually received" And how would you measure that? You could base it on the entrance qualifications but I don't think that's a great idea as I know of courses by institutions in that list that are very difficult to get into but then the course itself is pretty shoddy - although the general reputation for the university and course in question is very good.
- pcrh 14y agoIn addition to the École Normale Supérieure, at 59, and the École Polytechnique at 62, the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon is at 170. Lower ranking by the Grandes Écoles is likely to the the relatively poor showing of France in basic research.
- eli_gottlieb 14y agoPractical value is therefore marginal at best. A much more useful analysis would be by subject, across all institutions. There are various collections of by-department rankings. http://www.arwu.org/ http://www.arwu.org/ -- this one can list by Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Economics.