<p>Frankly, a 60%-7% science/art ranking is completely fair in terms of reputation. Many more people are going to read about scientific innovation than they’re going to read about art history or Greek poetry.</p>
<p>This isn’t about fairness. It’s not about judging the quality of an institution - THES has another ranking for that in which Chicago is top 10. This is REPUTATION Rankings.</p>
<p>But let’s face reality. THES is basically using an old US News trick. They have an ideal ranking, and they try to make an “objective” ranking that fits in with what they already think. If you wanted to do a real, objective study, no one would pick US News’ methodology. US News’ methodology is considered valid precisely BECAUSE it lines up universities based upon our intuition. THES Editors likely considered Harvard #1, MIT #2, Chicago #14, Columbia #15, etc. and thought, how can we make a survey that reflects this result? And they did. So it’s nothing to get worked up about.</p>
<p>Also, no one cares about THES. They act like they’re the ultimate authority, but no one really gives a ■■■ about them. The vast majority of people rely on US News. Regardless, I think THES fairly reflects what the rest of the world thinks. It’s easy to get a narrow perspective by being in the US too long; for instance, I can tell you that in Japan, Michigan is more well known than Johns Hopkins, and UCLA is more well known than Cornell.</p>