MIT overtakes Cambridge and Harvard to top spot in QS world university rankings

Post by mturmon » Wed, Sep 12, 2012, 2:53 AM UTC

nessus42 wrote: post #49

mturmon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% will take your word for it on the quality of some elements of MIT's humanities faculty (not being ironic). But few of the MIT grads I've known (wonderful people, all) appear to have benefited that much from this opportunity. They're nerds through and through. Maybe the technical course load precludes exploring non-technical subjects. Or maybe the experience of 4 years almost exclusively around young scientists…

I'm a nerd through and through too. Being a nerd doesn't mean that you can't have an appreciation for some kinds of humanities, though, especially if you take a very analytical approach to it. E.g., Psychology at MIT is rather scientific, and Philosophy is rather logical. And for creative writing, I, of course, wrote Science Fiction.

Post by 001sky » Wed, Sep 12, 2012, 4:27 AM UTC

geebee wrote: post #53

001sky wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berkeley has a hudge breadth of top ranked Phd courses, so depending on how you account for that it matters greatly. It also has a surprisingly strong brand internationally, including in Asia. So, smart people think differently depending upon where you are getting the data from. (What USA tennie-boppers think is "prestigeous" doesn't always play well in other areas, etc).

I agree about Berkeley. Looking over the various departmental rankings, Berkeley and Stanford are the only universities that (at the PhD level) seem to be near the top in every discipline. I'd guess that the absence of a med school pulls down Berkeley's ranking somewhat. When you start comparing research funding and activity, the med schools play a huge role in pumping up the numbers.