Top 60 research universities

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

By average score here:
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#TOP60

Arizona -2
Arizona (30)
Arizona State (54)

California-8
Stanford (1)
UC Berkeley (2)
UCLA (6)
UC San Diego (21)
UC Santa Barbara (28)
UC Davis (43)
Cal Tech (44)
Southern California (46)

Colorado-1
Colorado (34)

Connecticut -2
Yale (16)
Connecticut (59)

Florida -1
Florida (33)

Illinois-3
Illinois (9)
Chicago (15)
Northwestern (24)

Indiana -2
Indiana (36)
Purdue (45)

Iowa -2
Iowa (31)
Iowa State (56)

Kansas -1
Kansas (52)

Kentucky -1
Kentucky (55)

Louisiana  -1
LSU (58)

Maryland -2
John Hopkins (19)
Maryland (40)

Massachusetts -4
Harvard (12)
MIT (23)
Massachusetts (34)
Boston University (53)

Michigan -2
Michigan (3)
Michigan State (37)

Minnesota  -1
Minnesota (13)

Missouri -1
Washington St. Louis (37)

New Jersey -2
Princeton (14)
Rutgers (26)

New York -7
Cornell (4)
Columbia ( 8 )
SUNY Stony Brook (31)
Rochester (39)
SUNY Buffalo (41)
CUNY (46)
Syracuse (60)

North Carolina -3
Duke(18)
North Carolina (22)
North Carolina State (51)

Ohio -1
Ohio State (17)

Pennsylvania -3
Penn (9)
Penn State (20)
Pittsburg (29)

Rhode Island -1
Brown (27)

Tennessee -1
Vanderbilt (49)

Texas -3
Texas (7)
Texas A&M (50)
Rice (57)

Virginia -1
Virginia (25)

Washington -1
Washington (9)

Wisconsin -1
Wisconsin (5)


General overview:

Top 5 discussion
Stanford, Palo Alto, CA liberal town in blue state
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA liberal town in blue state
Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, liberal town in blue state
Cornell, Ithaca, NY, liberal town in blue state
Wisconsin, Madison, WI, liberal town in blue state

5 of top 5 are in blue states
10 of top 11 are in blue states
14 of top 15 are in blue states
17 of top 20 are in blue states
20 of top 25 are in blue states
24 of top 30 are in blue states
26 of top 35 are in blue states
29 of top 40 are in blue states
33 of top 45 are in blue states
36 of top 50 are in blue states
37 of top 55 are in blue states
39 of top 60 are in blue states

Only in 51st-60th state are there a lot of red state universities.

[Smash255]

Nice my school is 31 (well my old school graduated May last year)

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Nice my school is 31 (well my old school graduated May last year)

Wait, where I went undergrad  is 31st, too.
Oh, and it wasn't in Iowa.

[Smash255]

Nice my school is 31 (well my old school graduated May last year)

Wait, where I went undergrad  is 31st, too.
Oh, and it wasn't in Iowa.

I still have no clue what the hell Seawolves  are though

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Nice my school is 31 (well my old school graduated May last year)

Wait, where I went undergrad  is 31st, too.
Oh, and it wasn't in Iowa.

I still have no clue what the hell Seawolves  are though

A mythical ocean creature that obviously isn't good at sports.

[Platypus]

where are all the unversities from other countries, dammit?

The university I plan to attend, Australian National University, was recently ranked 13th in the world, good enough for me; and it's probably the best uni for the course I want to do anyway.

[Sibboleth]

I hate all this crap about rating Unis

[Gabu]

Do we really need yet another "LOL DEMOCRATS ARE MORE EDUCATED AND SMARTER, TAKE THAT REPUBLICANS" flame war?

[Gabu]

Ahem, anyways... to vainly attempt to get some actual discussion out of this...

The university I plan to attend, Australian National University, was recently ranked 13th in the world, good enough for me; and it's probably the best uni for the course I want to do anyway.

I've never really cared about university rankings that much, really.  I'm sure that it means something, but really, unless you're in a diploma mill, the education that you'd be getting at one can't be that much worse than an education you'd get anywhere else.  It's mostly there for people to brag about who go to those schools, nothing more.

And when Richius comes bounding in here informing me that he's going to the #1 ranked comprehensive university in Canada, let me remind him that mine, the University of Victoria, happens to be only two ranks below it.

[Sibboleth]

There's too much snobbery as far as Uni's go, period. Over here there's only one Uni that is genuinely bad (Thames Valley) and even it's improving.
The only reason why certain Uni's are hard to get into is because it looks good to have certain Uni's names on a degree.

[Gabu]

The only reason why certain Uni's are hard to get into is because it looks good to have certain Uni's names on a degree.

Yes, that's what I meant by it giving people something to brag about.

[??????????]

Do we really need yet another "LOL DEMOCRATS ARE MORE EDUCATED AND SMARTER, TAKE THAT REPUBLICANS" flame war?

Fern loves trolling.

[True Federalist]

What the data is actially showing is that top research universities are located primary in large population states with:
10 of the top 10
19 of the top 20
28 of the top 30
36 of the top 40
46 of the top 50
52 of the top 60
located in states with 10 or more EV's.  Note that this correlation is considerably stronger than the one you observed.  It is not at all surprising that top research universities are located where there are a sufficient number of people to support the often esoteric work they do.  The red/blue phenomenon you observe is a side effect of the fact that right now small states trend Republican and large States trend Democratic not because of any academic benefit of being a Democrat.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

What the data is actially showing is that top research universities are located primary in large population states with:
10 of the top 10
19 of the top 20
28 of the top 30
36 of the top 40
46 of the top 50
52 of the top 60
located in states with 10 or more EV's.  Note that this correlation is considerably stronger than the one you observed.  It is not at all surprising that top research universities are located where there are a sufficient number of people to support the often esoteric work they do.  The red/blue phenomenon you observe is a side effect of the fact that right now small states trend Republican and large States trend Democratic not because of any academic benefit of being a Democrat.

Key fact that you overlook:
The total population of the red states is slightly greater than the total population of the blue states. Texas has 21 million people, and only 3 top 60 universities (2 of which are near the bottom).

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ahem, anyways... to vainly attempt to get some actual discussion out of this...

The university I plan to attend, Australian National University, was recently ranked 13th in the world, good enough for me; and it's probably the best uni for the course I want to do anyway.

I've never really cared about university rankings that much, really.  I'm sure that it means something, but really, unless you're in a diploma mill, the education that you'd be getting at one can't be that much worse than an education you'd get anywhere else.  It's mostly there for people to brag about who go to those schools, nothing more.

And when Richius comes bounding in here informing me that he's going to the #1 ranked comprehensive university in Canada, let me remind him that mine, the University of Victoria, happens to be only two ranks below it.

Most of the university research in this country goes on at one of these top 60 universities. I'm not ranking undergraduate programs, I'm ranking research PhD programs.

[Lunar]

Yup, the top universities are in large population centers.

Large population centers tend to be Democratic.

Woah.

Anyway, California, despite its flaws, has wonderful public universities.

[opebo]

Most Red states are too cheap to pay for very good public universities.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Yup, the top universities are in large population centers.

Large population centers tend to be Democratic.

Woah.

Anyway, California, despite its flaws, has wonderful public universities.

Look at Cornell (ranked number 4). It's in Ithaca, NY. I wouldn't call that a large population center.

[??????????]

Most Red states are too cheap to pay for very good public universities.

Yea, Florida State and University of Florida are terrible schools, right?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Most Red states are too cheap to pay for very good public universities.

Yea, Florida State and University of Florida are terrible schools, right?

There are good Univerisities in the red states, it's just that most of them are in the blue states. The Univ. of Florida ranks 33rd for research universities.

[AuH2O]

First of all, college towns are so liberal in part because their full of people that basically don't live in the real world. Second of all, the "top" universities just have people with higher IQs not in the real world. Third of all, the most liberal state, Massachussetts, probably has among the worst public systems in the Eastern US, while Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee have three of the top public systems.

Note of course that some Democrats are apparently too stupid to distinguish public from private schools (such as Stanford), which of course are not funded by the government. Neither are any of the Ivy League schools, or most of the good schools in the Northeast or West Coast.

The private schools are good because the rich leftists send their kids there instead of the public schools.

At any rate, analysis is best done by someone with at least an IQ of 75, which unfortunately is too high a plateau for the originator of this silly thread.

[Beet]

MIT is #23 while Michigan is only #3??!?

What the heck?

[Lunar]

or most of the good schools in the Northeast or West Coast.

Are you serious about the West Coast part?

Look at Cornell (ranked number 4). It's in Ithaca, NY. I wouldn't call that a large population center.

New York is.  Just because New Yorkers have to travel a bit inland doesn't mean it isn't a feed off the main city.

[phk]

or most of the good schools in the Northeast or West Coast.

Are you serious about the West Coast part?

Look at Cornell (ranked number 4). It's in Ithaca, NY. I wouldn't call that a large population center.

New York is.  Just because New Yorkers have to travel a bit inland doesn't mean it isn't a feed off the main city.

Our 8 UC's are just great :-).

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

MIT is #23 while Michigan is only #3??!?

What the heck?

MIT had only 23 of the 41 programs they were ranking.  If you only rank their non-zero scores (which gives them an unfair advantage), they rank #1 in non-zero scores, as opposed to #23 in avearge scores.

Clearly the top 2 universities over all are

Stanford, 40 programs, #1 average score
Berkeley, 36 programs, 35 of which are top 10, #2 average score, #2 non-zero score

Now that Berkeley-Stanford rivalry makes more sense.