<p>In the US News and World Report Best Colleges Rankings, Yale scores very low on most academic fields with the exception of History and Political Science. If this is the case, why is Yale traditionally ranked at the top with Harvard and Princeton? I strongly suspect that it’s due to the $22.5bn endowment fund that Yale enjoys.</p>
<p>Why do billion people eat at McDonald’s? Does that make McDonald’s food healthy?
Why did Britney Spears’ debut album go diamond (over 10 million copies sold)? Does that make the album awesome?</p>
<p>It’s all about branding and perception.</p>
<p>Yale simply rocks my world.</p>
<p>Oh, I forgot. Why is Paris Hilton so damn popular? Because she’s a genius at branding. She knows how to advertise and brand herself. Does that make her talented?</p>
<p>whoa there, why the yale hating on a yale board?</p>
<p>pete - the only way they really measure that stuff is by looking at the amount of research put out at grad schools - not necessarily the quality of the teaching or the rigor of the curriculum. With the exception of engineering, Yale provides an undergrad experience at the very least in the top 10 schools in the US.</p>
<p>What is Yale good at?</p>
<p>ADVERTISING.</p>
<p>Dude we’re talking about the rankings done by a research organization…involving cold hard numbers.</p>
<p>But you do know that statistics isn’t purely a cold hard numbers sport right? There is so much decisionmaking that must go on, and so much bias that could factor in.</p>
<p>What are the USNWR “Best College” academic field rankings? I’ve never seen them. What are they based on? There are periodic surveys about graduate programs (the last one is about ten years old, although supposedly a new one will be out soon), and those can be somewhat helpful in determining areas of specific strength and weakness. But the translation between strong graduate programs and strong undergraduate programs isn’t perfect – a graduate program can get hurt by factors that don’t affect undergraduates, and undergraduates can have a great experience in places that are less-than-cutting-edge at the graduate level.</p>
<p>In any event, there is NO such thing as a statistics-based set of departmental qualaity rankings, anywhere, unless the statistics include a huge chunk of subjective survey information. (Well, not entirely true. Some people do citation counts as a measure of faculty reputation, and things like that. )</p>
<p>All of that said . . . Some of the areas where Yale is generally regarded as strong, other than History and Poli Sci: </p>
<p>English/Literary Studies. A generation ago, Yale was the dominant university in the world in this area. That’s not so true anymore, but it’s still among the top-echelon places.</p>
<p>Linguistics. Very hot program, from what I’m told. Not really a traditional area of strength for Yale, and it almost killed the whole program a while ago, but it’s been on a roll for the past decade or so.</p>
<p>Psychology. Traditionally a strong area, not certain about current status.</p>
<p>Economics. Generally, it’s very crowded at the top of the Economics totem pole, with really minimal differences in faculty and grad student quality among the top 8-10 programs, which certainly include Yale. Would it outrank Harvard or Chicago? No. Does it matter? No.</p>
<p>Classics. Always a strength.</p>
<p>This list is non-exclusive; it’s based on things I know something about. I don’t know that much about hard sciences, so I can’t address them. I know Yale let its engineering program slip over the last half of the 20th century, and has been spending a ton of money to build it back up again, but it wouldn’t be ranked anywhere near the top.</p>
<p>Three final thoughts:</p>
<p>(1) Student quality is very important. Yale accepts and enrolls great students, and provides a wonderful social and academic context for them. That’s a huge part of its success.</p>
<p>(2) Very, very few undergraduates can tell the difference between a #1 ranked department and a #10 ranked department, because a single undergraduate in four years (only about 1/3 of which are spent on courses in a major) can’t even begin to exhaust the riches of a #10 ranked department (maybe unless it’s a field where there are only 10 departments in the country).</p>
<p>(3) Most students change their minds about what they want to study between their senior year of high school and their junior year of college. So it can be a serious mistake to focus on this particular major or that one. Statistically, it’s likely you are going to wind up somewhere else. No college is #1, or even top 5, in every discipline. What makes the elite universities elite is that they are top 5 in lots of things and top 20 in almost everything they offer. That’s waaaay good enough.</p>
<p>Some people think that McDonald’s has the best french fries in the world, but that doesn’t make it a fine restaurant. Yale is like a fine restaurant–everything is very good, some things are superlative, and the overall experience is outstanding. If all you care about is french fries, though, then you may be perfectly happy at McDonald’s.</p>
<p>
The list to which JHS referred in his excellent post:</p>
<h1>5 Art History</h1>
<h1>5 Classics</h1>
<h1>1 Comparative Literature</h1>
<h1>1 English</h1>
<h1>1 French</h1>
<h1>5 German</h1>
<h1>5 Music</h1>
<h1>6 Molecular Biology</h1>
<h1>10 Cell Biology</h1>
<h1>8 Genetics</h1>
<h1>2 Neuroscience</h1>
<h1>1 Pharmacology</h1>
<h1>1 Physiology</h1>
<h1>15 Astronomy</h1>
<h1>12 Chemistry</h1>
<h1>14 Computer Science</h1>
<h1>7 Mathematics</h1>
<h1>13 Physics</h1>
<h1>8 Anthropology</h1>
<h1>6 Economics</h1>
<h1>1 History</h1>
<h1>3 Political Science</h1>
<h1>3 Psychology</h1>
<p>Unranked programs like architecture, environmental studies, archaeology, Near/Middle Eastern studies, and Slavic languages are also exceptionally good.</p>
<p>Maybe Pete can enlighten us (who eschew USNWR) as to where Yale is said to be “very low on most academic fields”. IBClass06’s list is rather stellar, IMHO.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Did you actually LOOK at all the US News graduate rankings? Yale doesn’t rank “very low” on any field, save engineering. In fact, Law, Medicine, History, English, Poli Sci, Econ, Bio, Psychology, Math, Earth Science, Music, Art, Drama, Nursing, and more rank in the top 10. All the rest are in the top 15 or 20 save engineering. Yale is essentially tied with Princeton in terms of who has more highly ranked graduate programs (including the professional schools).</p>
<p>awww, be nice. He was just trying to raise some questions.</p>
<p>Hahaha. Does Tufte still teach his visual data class? Pete probably needs to take it!</p>
<p>in an inflammatory and sarcastic way?</p>
<p>wait, I thought Princeton’s graduate programs weren’t that great (save for Woodrow Wilson School, wonder that’s how it’s really called); Princeton does, however, have the top undergraduate programs and experience as well as support and environment</p>
<p>On the other hand, Yale’s gradutae programs are awesome, such as its Law School; its undergraduate programs without question</p>
<p>I really liked how one of Princeton’s cathedrals was built by a Yale architect, with his face on the sculpture and bulldog engraving all over the place (even the sewer system)</p>
<p>All in all, Yale’s great. I think its residential colleges are the nation’s best.</p>
<p>My question, then, is where does international relations come in this program ranks?
Is it included in the Poli Sci area?</p>
<p>“Princeton’s graduate programs weren’t that great”</p>
<p>I feel I really need to correct this gross misconception. Econ (Nobel Prize this year), math, philosophy, history, physics, and international affairs are just a few of the fields where Princeton is at least top 5. Just because Princeton has great undergraduate emphasis, it does not mean Princeton’s grad schools suffer in quality. Do not confuse Princeton’s lack of professional schools (Law, Med, Business) with bad graduate programs.</p>
<p>thanks for the correction hallowarts
I was expecting some kind of reaction when i wrote that</p>
<p>Anyone Princeton-holics in this forum?</p>