QS Top Global College Rankings - 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings/methodology

methodology:

*vibes* (aka "reputation"): 45%
international faculty/students: 15%
sustainability: 5%


we all know DCUM just loves a bunch of international faculty teaching their kids!

+1. Ridiculous methodology. Like I care about sustainability or “vibes” when paying $100k a year

i don't know why someone keeps posting crap rankings like this here. Have to somehow feel relevant, but not helpful It's USNWR as the gold standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My recollection is that both of these rankings prioritize research and serve as better measures of graduate education and quality of employment opportunities for faculty.

Not necessarily indicative of the undergraduate experience.

Undergraduate research is done by upwards of 75% of Stem students and about 50% of non-stem students at top-15 level schools. Research is considered essential for PhD apps, even in humanities, and it is highly important for acceptance to any of the T75 medical schools. Academic research is considered a boost for law school apps as well. The QS rankings inclusion of research as a large factor is very important to any undergraduate, especially considering the large changes in funding that have dramatically affected research support of undergrads. Schools with large research funding have weathered the recent funding storm much better than schools lower on the list.

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. My niece just tagged her 4th med school admit for next year, all top 50 including NYU and expects several more before she is finished. ZERO research but great grades, scores, and clinicals. As to your research numbers above, they are just made up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My recollection is that both of these rankings prioritize research and serve as better measures of graduate education and quality of employment opportunities for faculty.

Not necessarily indicative of the undergraduate experience.

Undergraduate research is done by upwards of 75% of Stem students and about 50% of non-stem students at top-15 level schools. Research is considered essential for PhD apps, even in humanities, and it is highly important for acceptance to any of the T75 medical schools. Academic research is considered a boost for law school apps as well. The QS rankings inclusion of research as a large factor is very important to any undergraduate, especially considering the large changes in funding that have dramatically affected research support of undergrads. Schools with large research funding have weathered the recent funding storm much better than schools lower on the list.

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. My niece just tagged her 4th med school admit for next year, all top 50 including NYU and expects several more before she is finished. ZERO research but great grades, scores, and clinicals. As to your research numbers above, they are just made up.

DP. Your anecdote is just that, an anecdote. My niece being stupid doesn't mean everyone is stupid. Your fourth grade logic has no place. The post you answered to has some pretty reasonable numbers on research in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My recollection is that both of these rankings prioritize research and serve as better measures of graduate education and quality of employment opportunities for faculty.

Not necessarily indicative of the undergraduate experience.

Undergraduate research is done by upwards of 75% of Stem students and about 50% of non-stem students at top-15 level schools. Research is considered essential for PhD apps, even in humanities, and it is highly important for acceptance to any of the T75 medical schools. Academic research is considered a boost for law school apps as well. The QS rankings inclusion of research as a large factor is very important to any undergraduate, especially considering the large changes in funding that have dramatically affected research support of undergrads. Schools with large research funding have weathered the recent funding storm much better than schools lower on the list.

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. My niece just tagged her 4th med school admit for next year, all top 50 including NYU and expects several more before she is finished. ZERO research but great grades, scores, and clinicals. As to your research numbers above, they are just made up.

DP. Your anecdote is just that, an anecdote. My niece being stupid doesn't mean everyone is stupid. Your fourth grade logic has no place. The post you answered to has some pretty reasonable numbers on research in the US.

It doesn’t, not remotely close. If you have proof I’d love to see it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My recollection is that both of these rankings prioritize research and serve as better measures of graduate education and quality of employment opportunities for faculty.

Not necessarily indicative of the undergraduate experience.

Undergraduate research is done by upwards of 75% of Stem students and about 50% of non-stem students at top-15 level schools. Research is considered essential for PhD apps, even in humanities, and it is highly important for acceptance to any of the T75 medical schools. Academic research is considered a boost for law school apps as well. The QS rankings inclusion of research as a large factor is very important to any undergraduate, especially considering the large changes in funding that have dramatically affected research support of undergrads. Schools with large research funding have weathered the recent funding storm much better than schools lower on the list.

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. My niece just tagged her 4th med school admit for next year, all top 50 including NYU and expects several more before she is finished. ZERO research but great grades, scores, and clinicals. As to your research numbers above, they are just made up.

DP. Your anecdote is just that, an anecdote. My niece being stupid doesn't mean everyone is stupid. Your fourth grade logic has no place. The post you answered to has some pretty reasonable numbers on research in the US.

It doesn’t, not remotely close. If you have proof I’d love to see it.

The proof of the claim "Undergraduate research is done by upwards of 75% of STEM students and about 50% of non-stem students at top-15 level schools" can be easily found from any t15 school's website.

For example, 70% of JHU's engineering undergraduates take part in research, according to https://engineering.jhu.edu/research/undergraduate-research-opportunities.

As another example, 50% of Duke's undergraduates — not necessarily STEM — do research at some point, according to https://researchblog.duke.edu/2014/12/08/how-to-get-your-foot-in-the-door-at-a-research-lab.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings/methodology

methodology:

*vibes* (aka "reputation"): 45%
international faculty/students: 15%
sustainability: 5%


we all know DCUM just loves a bunch of international faculty teaching their kids!

+1. Ridiculous methodology. Like I care about sustainability or “vibes” when paying $100k a year

i don't know why someone keeps posting crap rankings like this here. Have to somehow feel relevant, but not helpful It's USNWR as the gold standard.

I think this is hilarious - if you think that the USNWR rankings are the gold standard then there is no gold standard. It is just some stuff that a journalist made up. 20% is a popularity contest of asking college administrators who they think is good.

I work at a college and have sat in on meetings where we discussed what we needed to do to do well in rankings. It was all minor stuff that has zero impact on students life. Apparently one thing that really helps is advertising your school to other administrators so they have something to say about you if things asked to rank you, so administrators often get random swag and literature sent to them.

Anyway, they do serve to allow you to impress others who thing the rankings are meaningful, but they won’t be an indicator of your kids experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._News_%26_World_Report_Best_Colleges_Ranking

[Anonymous]

You are an idiot to even believe in a ranking system for choosing a college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My recollection is that both of these rankings prioritize research and serve as better measures of graduate education and quality of employment opportunities for faculty.

Not necessarily indicative of the undergraduate experience.

Undergraduate research is done by upwards of 75% of Stem students and about 50% of non-stem students at top-15 level schools. Research is considered essential for PhD apps, even in humanities, and it is highly important for acceptance to any of the T75 medical schools. Academic research is considered a boost for law school apps as well. The QS rankings inclusion of research as a large factor is very important to any undergraduate, especially considering the large changes in funding that have dramatically affected research support of undergrads. Schools with large research funding have weathered the recent funding storm much better than schools lower on the list.

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. My niece just tagged her 4th med school admit for next year, all top 50 including NYU and expects several more before she is finished. ZERO research but great grades, scores, and clinicals. As to your research numbers above, they are just made up.

DP. Everyone we know into Stanford and other top med so far has research. And top grades and scores. The ivy tells the students research is key. My T10 pushed research years ago; allof us who went to T25 med school had it, 25 years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. MIT
2. Imperial College London
3. Stanford
4. Oxford
5. Harvard
6. Cambridge
7. ETH Zurich
8. National University Singapore
9. UCL London
10. Caltech
11. University of Hong Kong
12. Nanyang Singapore
13. U Chicago
14. Peking U
15. U Penn
16. Cornell
17. Tsinghua U
18. UC Berkeley
19. University of Melbourne
20. University of NSW Sydney
21. Yale
22. EPFL Lausanne
23. Technical University Munich
24. Johns Hopkins
25. Princeton
26. University of Sydney
27. Princeton
28. Universite PFL Paris
29. University of Toronto
30. Fudan

https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings?tab=indicators&sort_by=rank&order_by=asc

So the top US schools are…
MIT Harvard Stanford CalT Chicago UPenn Cornell UCB Yale Hopkins Princeton….
Nothing remotely new or surprising about that list of US schools.

[Anonymous]

Princeton must be exceptional as it's in there twice!

That aside, this is mostly a research ranking and most of the faculty in Tsingua/Peking/Fudan are US trained and are really kick-ass. But academia being what it is, they did not get offers in the US. The world is a big place and great research is everywhere. But for all practical purposes the rankings don't mean much. The top 50-100 universities/LACs in the US have excellent faculty and mostly good peer groups. Go find something that works within your budget and your preferences and you'll be fine. Maybe you won't get recruited by Jane Street but who cares!

[Anonymous]

Interesting….so clearly none of you would send your kids to Notre Dame 294 or Georgetown 285? Send them to Arizona State at 174

Don’t let UVA mom know they are #275 or Emory mom know they are 182

St Andrews is 113….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. MIT
2. Imperial College London
3. Stanford
4. Oxford
5. Harvard
6. Cambridge
7. ETH Zurich
8. National University Singapore
9. UCL London
10. Caltech
11. University of Hong Kong
12. Nanyang Singapore
13. U Chicago
14. Peking U
15. U Penn
16. Cornell
17. Tsinghua U
18. UC Berkeley
19. University of Melbourne
20. University of NSW Sydney
21. Yale
22. EPFL Lausanne
23. Technical University Munich
24. Johns Hopkins
25. Princeton
26. University of Sydney
27. Princeton (This is a typo - #27 is McGill)
28. Universite PFL Paris
29. University of Toronto
30. Fudan

https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings?tab=indicators&sort_by=rank&order_by=asc

Note: OP made a typo when copying the list. Number 27 worldwide is McGill (not Princeton, which is already listed at #25).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. MIT
2. Imperial College London
3. Stanford
4. Oxford
5. Harvard
6. Cambridge
7. ETH Zurich
8. National University Singapore
9. UCL London
10. Caltech
11. University of Hong Kong
12. Nanyang Singapore
13. U Chicago
14. Peking U
15. U Penn
16. Cornell
17. Tsinghua U
18. UC Berkeley
19. University of Melbourne
20. University of NSW Sydney
21. Yale
22. EPFL Lausanne
23. Technical University Munich
24. Johns Hopkins
25. Princeton
26. University of Sydney
27. Princeton (This is a typo - #27 is McGill)
28. Universite PFL Paris
29. University of Toronto
30. Fudan

https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings?tab=indicators&sort_by=rank&order_by=asc

Note: OP made a typo when copying the list. Number 27 worldwide is McGill (not Princeton, which is already listed at #25).

For global prestige, both McGill #27 and U of Toronto #29 in Canada are much higher than the colleges being fixated about on this board too much (Brown, Vanderbilt, WashU, Rice, UVA, Georgetown, NYU etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting….so clearly none of you would send your kids to Notre Dame 294 or Georgetown 285? Send them to Arizona State at 174

Don’t let UVA mom know they are #275 or Emory mom know they are 182

St Andrews is 113….

Precisely why there is so much interest and hate on DCUM. Much higher global ranking than many “elite” US schools at a fraction of the cost.

[Anonymous]

Maybe OP and their ilk will apply to universities outside the US and free up more space for US kids who value our schools. Win-win.