<p>So, I see a lot of people throwing around lists of “world class” universities, but I rarely see people validating their lists.</p>
<p>What makes a university “world class?”</p>
<p>I should’ve written this in the first post, but as they say in Japan, “c’est la vie.”</p>
<p>I often hear Columbia trumpeted around as “world class.” Yet I’ve met fairly well-educated Brits who couldn’t place it on a map. Likewise, every Brit I’ve met considers LSE “world class,” yet most Americans don’t know LSE from Imperial College.</p>
<p>To me, the notion of “world class” seems awfully arbitrary, but perhaps a good methodology would clear it up?</p>
<p>World class University- an insitution that have constantly redefined academic thinking while maintain a proud and often deep historical tradition with a strong international audience. </p>
<p>Example, Oxford, Havard, Yale.</p>
<p>Is history necessary for “world class” status? For example, Berkeley isn’t as old as many other top research institutions, but its research output is superb.</p>
<p>And what do you mean by “redefining academic thinking?”</p>
<p>My list of World-class univs n NO order:
[ul]
[<em>] Indian Institute of Technology
[</em>] Harvard
[<em>] Princeton
[</em>] Stanford
[<em>] Yale
[</em>] Cornell
[<em>] UPenn
[</em>] Columbia
[<em>] Cambridge
[</em>] Oxford
[<em>] LSE
[</em>] MIT
[<em>] CalTech
[</em>] UC-Berkeley
[<em>] ETH-Zurich
[</em>] University of Chicago
[li] Brown[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>May I ask if you feel that this list in inclusive? And what are your criteria?</p>
<p>Again guys, read the first post: Explain WHY you believe that schools X, Y, and Z deserve to be considered “world class.” Don’t just list them off.</p>
<p>Explanations:
NOTE : I’m dwelving more into academics than social scene, with special emphasis on research. </p>
<p>1.) Indian Institute of Technology - Certainly the best for academics in Engineering in the world. The quality of incoming students is fantastic. Great recognition and oppertunities.</p>
<p>2.) Harvard - Well endowed. Great oppertunities for private and student research. Great Academics.</p>
<p>3.) Princeton - Personal Attention to students. Well endowed. Solid academic foundations laid. Good social scene.</p>
<p>4.) Stanford - Excellent for Pst-graduation. For Under-graduation, not what I want because of dearth of opperunities, PG teaching and PG emphasis of the university as a whole.</p>
<p>5.) Yale - Don’t know much about the place.</p>
<p>6.) Cornell - Undoubtedly, best Ivy for Science and Engineering. Excellent Under-grad research oppertunities. Great degree of flexibilty with over 150 courses offered. Veru large work-load. But, a bit large so unless you actually do it urself, it will be hard to get break-throughs.</p>
<p>7.) UPenn - Undoubtedly, the best for business among the Ivies. But it pretty much ends there.</p>
<p>8.) Columbia - Grat academics. Equal emphasis on all courses. </p>
<p>9.) Cambridge - Very good Research institution. Solid Academics.</p>
<p>10.) Oxford - Don’t know much.</p>
<p>11.) LSE - Don’t know much.</p>
<p>12.) MIT - Engineering pwerhouse. Very good research oppertunites available. Great student quality.</p>
<p>13.) CalTech - Great Academics. Solid educational foundations laid. Great oppertunities. Being small, personal attention.</p>
<p>14.) UC-Berkeley - Research and Engineering Pwerhouse. Too big for my liking though. Great Flexibility.</p>
<p>15.) ETH-Zurich - One of the best research institutes in Europe and world.</p>
<p>16.) University of Chicago - Freakishly good at Science and economics. Great Academics.</p>
<p>17.) Brown - Have no idea of the place.</p>
<p>So you add schools with no real knowledge of what makes them “world class?”</p>
<p>I’d argue that Michigan, UCLA, and Penn could give any of them a run for their money. </p>
<p>Michigan has about as many top 10 depts as Cal or Columbia. UCLA has Breadth and depth that Brown can’t compete with, and Penn has fantastic professional schools and a great undergrad program along with Wharton.</p>
<p>Doesn’t make them world class per se. </p>
<p>No offense, but aren’t you embarrassed that your list has schools there for reasons that you don’t understand?</p>
<p>The schools that I included in which I said,“Don’t know much”…was on account of the fact that a.) their fortes are not what i’m interested in…or b.) These places are widely recognised as the best…common conception. Whats to be embarassed at that? are you drunk or something?
For instance, i’m pretty much justified in saying Oxford and Yale are World-class without know too much about them. Its not like i’m saying Pomona College is world class.</p>
<p>But is Brown really recognized as world class? How about LSE?</p>
<p>Sure, I think they are, but tons of people worldwide know NOTHING about them. </p>
<p>By the way, no, I’m quite sober, but thanks for the ad hominem attack. I love them. </p>
<p>My point is, people “accept” the notion of certain unis being “world class.” But I’m trying to understand WHAT EXACTLY defines “world class.” </p>
<p>Like I said, Michigan (let’s use it to remove any calls of bias on my part) could give any of the top universities a run for their money. But I rarely see it listed. Why?</p>
<p>ok…so whats a “World Class” Univesity?</p>
<p>Here’s my view:
A university that has established a reputation in one or more fields of education and studies and to be a leader having made great progress in the same; which has a great quality of students present; which has an acceptable level of selectivity and lastly, which offers a great degree of flexibilty and indipendance, along with monetory and intellectual support when it comes to helping the student realise his dream, be it in research or sports.</p>
<p>the institution, as a previous poster said, must also have a large international audience. Though your statement of Brown and LSE may be true when it comes to the lay man, the educated intellectual attending university most certainly would have heard of these places.</p>
<p>See, that seems awfully broad to me. By that standard, your list is rather brief, to be certain. </p>
<p>I mean, then we have to add UCL, Imperial College, UCSD, Beida, Duke, Georgetown, JHU, and a few others just to start.</p>
<p>Yes, Imperial, Duke and JHU were meant to be added, my bad…they never struck me.</p>
<p>But Michigan, UCSD and Georgetown, though respectab;e to a certain extent, dwarf in comparison to the progress made by some places mentioned. The quality of the students should also be seen. I mean, the average student pool at MIT or the Ivies would be a bit better than that at Michigan or UCSD. A few brilliant guys at a place isn’t sufficient. The general student pool should be pretty good.
Its the cumalative of all factors that I mentioned that contribute.</p>
<p>I think world class means widely/historically recognized and regarded.</p>
<p>Arjun,</p>
<p>Michigan’s and Berkeley’s student bodies are almost identical.</p>
<p>Drew,</p>
<p>That gets tough though. Plenty of people seem to recognize Brown but not Dartmouth. What makes one so much better than the other? They both seem on equal footing to me. </p>
<p>And UCSD is well-recognized in the academic community. Is it layman prestige that matters?</p>
<p>UCLAri,
To be frank, I would rate the Berkeley student body a bit above Michigan’s. I’m not saying Michigan’s bad, but Berkely has a better reputation abroad and a much better academic curriculum (rate #3 in world). As I said cumalatively, Berkeley is better.</p>
<p>and no, its not Layman prestige, but prestige among the educated is my opinion. As for UCSD being recognised among the academic community…its image as a research institue is certainly improving; but it will time before it establishes itself along with the likes of research powerhouses like Berkeley, Cornell and Princeton.</p>
<p>Arjun,</p>
<p>Are you really sure about that with Michigan?</p>
<p>Statistically, there’s no difference between them, really.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, if you want to use rankings, then let’s consider this:</p>
<p>[According</a> to this ranking](<a href=“http://ccer.pku.edu.cn/ss/world-rankingsUnis.pdf]According”>http://ccer.pku.edu.cn/ss/world-rankingsUnis.pdf), Michigan soundly trumps Brown (which you listed as world class.)</p>
<p>Oh, and Duke.</p>
<p>I dunno that the “world rankings” are in your favor here.</p>
<p>Well my personal opinon of being a world class University (and mind my spelling because i’m just trying to type fast, this aint for a grade) would be one that has academics that have well known faculty, great research innovation time and time again, new discoveries. bright incomming students, strong academics and well funded. I also believe that if you go to other countries (not talkin about rural africa asia and south america either) and you mention you graduated from a “world class” university, people will know right away what one is talking about. Basicly just knowing by name.
my top schools in no particular order would be </p>
<p>The Ivy schools
UC berkeley
UCLA
Stanford
Duke
University of Michigan
(in medicine ) UCSF
Oxford
Cambridge
LSE
CalTech
MIT
University of Chicago
John Hopkins
University college london
University of Paris
USC
UNAM
Tokyo U.</p>
<p>I know i missed probably a couple more but i think these are World Class Schools, only my opinon.</p>
<p>LOL. The usual suspects. Except for USC.</p>
<p>Arjun, the University of California-Berkeley is certainly amazing. One of the top 10 universities in the World of you ask me. That does not take anything away from Michigan though, which is definitely one of the world’s top 25 universities, enough to earn it the title “World Class”. Michigan has always been considered one of the top universities. In the late 19th century, it had already established itself as the “Mother” of US universities because it was known for pioneering multiple academic fields and for producing top university administrators. Would you believe that 50% of Cornell and MIT presidents are University of Michigan alums? Cornell and Stanford were founded on the principles laid down by Michigan.</p>