New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

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zxcv
Posts: 402
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:08 pm

New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Post by zxcv » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:52 am

For all you ranking addicts, there's good and bad news:
http://incoherently-scattered.blogspot. ... kings.html

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Helio
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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Post by Helio » Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:46 pm

I will never understand why they have a string theory section, but no astrophysics

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fermiboy
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Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Post by fermiboy » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:58 am

These rankings are a joke. How can CalTech be ranked 10 in condensed matter? Only because of their name. For a university of their stature, they are barely doing any research in the field. The deans and chairs get the survey, see CalTech, and say "Oh yeah CalTech must be good in condensed matter, because they're CalTech, they're good at everything." Then I see Arizona isn't even ranked in AMO anymore, but CalTech is. Seriously? CalTech has THREE AMO professors, while Arizona has an entire college of optical sciences. Word to the wise, if you put any stock in these ratings then you are a total dumbass. Get out there and really research the schools, and pick them based on advisers, not on some arbitrary rankings by a publication that doesn't know *** about physics.

admissionprof
Posts: 369
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:50 pm

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Post by admissionprof » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:11 am

fermiboy wrote:These rankings are a joke. How can CalTech be ranked 10 in condensed matter? Only because of their name. For a university of their stature, they are barely doing any research in the field. The deans and chairs get the survey, see CalTech, and say "Oh yeah CalTech must be good in condensed matter, because they're CalTech, they're good at everything." Then I see Arizona isn't even ranked in AMO anymore, but CalTech is. Seriously? CalTech has THREE AMO professors, while Arizona has an entire college of optical sciences. Word to the wise, if you put any stock in these ratings then you are a total dumbass. Get out there and really research the schools, and pick them based on advisers, not on some arbitrary rankings by a publication that doesn't know *** about physics.
I agree. Many years ago, the top CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies were given a list of institutions and asked to rank their business schools. Princeton came in fourth.

Princeton doesn't have a business school.

excel
Posts: 257
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:33 am

Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Post by excel » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:56 am

So, what is the moral of the story? Is it: You may graduate from a very strong program for your subject, but still even important academic people (like deans and chairs) will not consider the pedigree of your degree as high as that of a graduate from an "elite" university that is not so strong in your subject?

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Helio
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Re: New US news rankings (and NRC delayed)

Post by Helio » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:09 pm

I am waiting for NRC to finalize my list.... but then again i already have a pretty good idea where to apply... just need to figure out one or two more backup schools



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