The world's top universities?

[WillJ]

What would you say are the top five universities in the world? Feel free to rank a different number in your post. In the poll, though, only vote for the top five.

I made the poll public so that anyone who votes for a different number can be executed.

Obviously the quality of a university depends on what kind of program you're looking for, but I'm asking what you think is the overall best. As for what "best" means, use your own criteria, including silly bias if you wish.

And to keep this thread interesting, you might also want to rank the most underrated schools in your post.

 

[Yom]

1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Oxford
4. Cambridge
5. Yale


This is all for undergraduate. In the U.S., Princeton's been the best for undergraduate for some time now, with Harvard tying every once in a while and Yale as third. I've heard, that of the two excellent British universities, that Oxford is better; I doubt Yale is better.


Edit: How could you forget Cambridge, WillJ?!
I guess I'll vote for Berkley. MIT is a very good one too, and a couple childhood friends of mine are going to Dartmouth (which is too small, IMO) and Brown, which is very slack, but I think it'd make getting into Graduate school too hard if you took so many pass/fail classes.

Edit2: Yom cannot read very well.

 

[Ramius75]

actually never been there, so no idea, hehehehe.

Just rank them according to what i feel about them.

Edit: sorry didnt liost them out

1) MIT
2) Harvard
3) Yale
4) UCLA Berkerly
5) Princeton

 

[Yom]

I'm probably biased since I live so near it, but isn't the College of William and Mary generally considered a better school than Duke or the University of Chicago? I know that all three are good universities.

 

[Goonie]

I think you should rename this : Top American Universities, as your list seems to be somewhat bias.

 

[WillJ]

Yom, I suppose this is an appropriate place to congratulate you on being accepted into Princeton. Are you going there?

actually never been there, so no idea, hehehehe.

Just rank them according to what i feel about them.

I imagine most of us are the same.

My personal opinion, based solely on what I hear from other people:

1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. Cambridge
4. Princeton
5. Oxford

I'm probably biased since I live so near it, but isn't the College of William and Mary generally considered a better school than Duke or the University of Chicago? I know that all three are good universities.

You're probably right that it's considered better than Duke. Not sure about Chicago.

 

[Yom]

Yom, I suppose this is an appropriate place to congratulate you on being accepted into Princeton. Are you going there?

Yes, although I suppose I should take that out of my signature now. Three months is no longer recent, and keeping it there seems a bit too arrogant to me.

 

[Azadre]

For Polysci, OSU is 4th in the world.

 

[WillJ]

I think you should rename this : Top American Universities, as your list seems to be somewhat bias.

Yes, I won't deny that I have a bias. That said, America's tertiary education system isn't that bad....

What notable schools did I leave out?

 

[cgannon64]

I'll wait until one of them accepts me.

And when none of them accept me (which won't happen - keep telling myself that) I'll decide that college education itself is broken.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Athabasca University

(Albertans might get the joke)

 

[blindside]

Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Yale.


I don't see why UC-Berkley is up there. Is it that good?

 

[Babbler]

What notable schools did I leave out?

Canada's universities, of course.

Where's McGill? That where the Ruterford and Penfield worked. And University of Toronto has produced some famous grads as well.

 

[Perfection]

Well, for my major (chemical engineering) it's basicly UC Berkley, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and MIT.

(at least in the U.S.)

 

[Moss]

Perfection...U of M.

I picked

Harvard
Oxford
Yale
Cambridge
MIT

 

[Riesstiu IV]

University of Idaho!

 

[Perfection]

Perfection...U of M.

Gotta love them Golden Gophers!

 

[shortguy]

I'm probably biased since I live so near it, but isn't the College of William and Mary generally considered a better school than Duke or the University of Chicago? I know that all three are good universities.

Not that I know of. Of course, they both have the advantage of being private. In fact, one of my main concerns about W&M and UVA are that both are public, and thus suceptible to prestige loss resulting from a loss of funding. I believe UVA only gets about 8% of its funding from the state, though, so it's probably safe; I don't know about W&M, but offhand I would suppose the same.

In my (biased) opinion, a more interesting comparison would be one involving UVA, W&M, U of M, Cal-Berkeley, and UNC, to see which US public school takes the cake. Any other good candidates?

 

[Perfection]

U of M

Which U of M?

 

[shortguy]

I was referring To Michigan-Ann Arbor. But Minnesota might be as good, I don't know.