<p>Recharge, I think you need to more concretely provide your definition of “academic superiority,” which I think is where the heart of the discussion lies. I’ll concede that U of M is certainly a very underrated institution (Here you know I’m not biased, as it’s very rare that you’ll hear a Notre Dame student admit this.), especially when it comes to graduate school. That being said, based on what I have seen from both schools, I personally would regard Notre Dame as “academically superior,” i.e. Notre Dame is more selective (both in numbers as well as SAT scores/high school statistics/etc) for undergraduate purposes, graduate programs are too close to judge (but I would give a slight edge to ND), etc. I’ve seen the rankings you have posted, but they all seem either highly disputed or skewed by class size (For example, as good of a school as Ohio State University is, I can’t help but doubt the legitimacy of your ARWU because it places OSU a few spots above Brown University). I believe rankings like the US News and the Princeton Review are more widely used for a reason.</p>
<p>So, what do you mean by “academic superiority?”</p>