......Having taught at Stanford, Harvard, annd a couple of other places I can tell you that all this "ranking" is non-sense. Of course, all of the big, billion-dollar plus endowment, mostly "ivy league" universities love it as it is free advertizing and publicity: In my research labs I have had people from just about every corner of the worldwide university spectrum and I have had brilliant researchers and engineers from every corner: none of the places had a monopoly on talent - although I will say that the big research universities have the edge in training: however most of their edge comes from controlling the grant award process here in the US and not necessarily from other strengths. So..... Before you blindly follow the herd and start "listing" academic institutions and start believing all of this propaganda, you might start thinking about universities / schools as just another set of businesses with their own priorities. All of the high and mighty talk is primariliy just that: talk which is designed to convince you to part with your money. A very good education can be had at many schools - if an education is truly your goal in attending ......
............I can't believe my college didn't make the list! I loved attending Westmont College (not in Santa Barbara) located in Monticito, CA........a few doors down was the former Shah of Iran's son and family compound, next to our entrance was Gene Hackmans driveway (we use to cut through his backyard to go skate the old aqueduct bowls in the hills)....and then of course the surf was supreme, "trestles", SB lanes...ahhhh life was so simpler then.....thanks for sparking the memories but I doubt my old school will even make the top 2,000...lol but I sure had fun and I learned a lot while majoring in Economics... rttrader -