<p>I looked at the English program, because that surprised me, too.</p>
<p>Basically, there is a huge disparity between what they are calling the “regression”-based ranking, and what they call the “survey”-based ranking. On the regression-based ranking, Cal’s English program comes out at 5 or 6 nationally in a virtual tie with Yale, and just behind a virtual four-way tie for first. (Cal is ranked lower than Yale because on some days it could be as low as #17, but Yale would be unlikely to be ranked lower than #12.) On the survey-based ranking, it shows a very, very wide range of possible outcomes, with a bell-curve distribution centered on the mid-40s. So when the two get averaged, Cal drops out of the top 20.</p>
<p>I am not yet certain that I understand the two different rankings, but I think – and this is counter-intuitive – that the regression-based ranking most reflects actual reputation in the field, and the survey-based ranking is an attempt at ranking based on specific qualities people deem important without regard to the institution. That’s a huge oversimplification, I’m sure. To oversimplify further, I believe what these rankings say about Cal is that when you ask English professors and graduate students how best to measure the quality of an English program, and they say, effectively, “This, That, and the Other Thing, and a smidgen of What and How,” Cal doesn’t actually compare very well with other top programs. But when you ask them to rank actual programs, they uniformly put Cal or programs like it near the top.</p>
<p>The “survey” ranking is definitely weirder than the “regression” ranking, although they are not completely inconsistent. In the regression ranking, as noted, there is a tight group of four at the top – Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Stanford – followed fairly closely by Yale and Cal. The top 11 is rounded out by CUNY, Cornell, Wisconsin, Brown, and UCLA, which are closely grouped. In the “survey” ranking, there is still a virtual tie for first between Harvard and Princeton, with Stanford just behind, but then there is a significant gap and a group of four roughly equal – Michigan, Penn State, Penn, and Vanderbilt – followed by another roughly equal group consisting of Columbia, Yale, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Arizona State. Cal has a much bigger difference between its rankings in the two systems than any other institution I could identify.</p>