US News Rankings vs. QS Rankings?

Question

I was wondering if anyone had any information regarding which ranking system is better for American universities. While, generally, the top few universities for a major don't vary all that much, once you get a little further down, there are some serious differences.

For example, for Computer Science, US News Rankings ranks Georgia Tech very highly and above both University of Southern California and New York University (USC is ranked higher than NYU). But on the QS Rankings, NYU is rated higher than Georgia Tech (by quite a ways), and USC isn't even on the list. This is just one example, but I just wanted to know which one people found more accurate.

Answer 1

There is no consensus about which rating system is better. All the popular ratings have been criticized for gaming in favor of past reputation, research volume, and irrelevant criteria.



The ACTA Education Foundation takes a totally different view. ACTA claims a good university education, leading to informed citizens, depends largely on seven core subjects, which are:



Composition

Literature

Economics

History/Government

Economics

Math

Sciences



ACTA rates colleges/universities strictly on how many of these core subjects the school requires of its students.

ACTA ratings lead to some surprises. Some HBCU (Black Colleges) do very well, and some state schools without high research budgets do very well (such as CalPoly-SLO) while prestigious colleges with no core study requirements, (such as Vassar), get an "F", meaning that students can drift through schools like Vassar for four years yet learn little of lasting significance.

Answer 2

U S News, Washington Monthly and Princeton Review all publish rankings. There are a few more rankings lists scattered around here and there. "Just take someone else's word for it." That's what rankings are, for many people. They give some people a good general idea, but, face it, their purpose is to sell magazines. Manhattan College's Engineering program is accredited by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) as all the best engineering programs are. So have confidence that it's programs are fully accepted/recognized by the profession, industry and academia.

Answer 3

Washington Monthly has a much better system of ranking universities. Check them out.