Need help finding colleges please!! (international student)

TTG
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 03:59:10 +0000

Yes, QS and Times effectively weight professor research and publications highly. So larger US research universities (including state flagships) tend to be ranked much higher than in US rankings like Newsweek and Forbes, which weight other things like undergrad prestige, test scores/grades of incoming students, competitiveness (acceptance rates/yields), grad rates, and that type of thing. Schools like Williams and Amherst are small LACs with very strong students, small classes, and excellent teaching. They are elite undergrad institutions but very low in those international rankings because the professors focus on teaching, not research and publishing. Except for some fields where research is especially important, they pretty much give you as good or an even better undergrad education than anywhere.

If an international student were from India or Singapore, just for examples, and wanted to go to work for a major financial institution or something similar, they might pay more attention to world rankings because these institutions are paying attention to them. For a job in the US, or for just a quality college education, I would advise relying more on US rankings like US News, Forbes, and/or Niche.

For an international student, rankings can be helpful. But keep in mind there are something like 3000 colleges and universities in the US. So the difference between 80 and 100 is really insignificant, or even 100 and 150. 150 may be in a place you’d love and strong in your area of interest, while 100 might be a place that would not appeal to you, and maybe doesn’t offer what you want to study. So 150 might be the best choice for you.

And keep in mind that these rankings are based on some somewhat arbitrary criteria. For example, research and publishing, which is important in QS and Times rankings, can actually be a negative for an undergrad because then the focus of a large number of professors at a highly ranked school might be on research, not the classroom, although this also can mean more research opportunities for undergrads, sometimes a lot and sometimes less. So rankings are just very rough guides, aimed at a general audience, not you.

And, even though most US students don’t do IB programs, admissions reps will be very familiar with it. So don’t be concerned that that will have any impact on how your application is viewed.

I’ll just throw out one more: Santa Clara University: beautiful campus, the best weather, business school, and located in Silicon Vally, so the best internship/coop opportunities of anywhere.