The Off Topic Topic

[crazy canuck]

 

[grumbler]

An interesting new ranking of world universities from Time magazine:

The World's Top Universities of 2026

A few things that I found interesting:

1. Chicago (#5) is ranked higher than Harvard (#6)
2. Michigan (cradle of geniuses) is ranked #9, ahead of every other US public university
3. Ohio State (#33) is ranked higher than Texas (#37) and both are ranked above Carnegie Mellon (#38)

Note that these are not the US News undergraduate school rankings, but rankings of the universities as a whole.

[viper37]

Saw this originally on Nota Bene's FB page, but forgot about it.

World War II grenade in buttocks triggers hospital alarm in Toulouse

Everyone can do as they want with their ass, I suppose, but rushing to the hospital with a grenade in buttocks is not the wisest course of action one might imagine.

[crazy canuck]

An interesting new ranking of world universities from Time magazine:

The World's Top Universities of 2026

A few things that I found interesting:

1. Chicago (#5) is ranked higher than Harvard (#6)
2. Michigan (cradle of geniuses) is ranked #9, ahead of every other US public university
3. Ohio State (#33) is ranked higher than Texas (#37) and both are ranked above Carnegie Mellon (#38)

Note that these are not the US News undergraduate school rankings, but rankings of the universities as a whole.

Interesting that the Swiss and Hong Kong universities ranked so high.  UBC has dropped down the rankings and U of T has remained about where they were before.

[Duque de Bragança]

Saw this originally on Nota Bene's FB page, but forgot about it.

World War II grenade in buttocks triggers hospital alarm in Toulouse

Everyone can do as they want with their ass, I suppose, but rushing to the hospital with a grenade in buttocks is not the wisest course of action one might imagine.

Une témérité sans fondement, si j'ose dire ! 

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

That's a really odd ranking list.  Some things I noticed:

• UAB and Alabama-Huntsville are both on the list, but flagship Alabama isn't
• Emory is surprisingly high, at least to me
• It seems like the entire University of California system was listed at some point
• 4 of 7 universities from the Dallas-Ft. Forth Metroplex (UNT, UT Dallas, UT Arlington, SMU) made the list (missing are TCU, Dallas Baptist, and Texas Women's)

[Jacob]

Interesting that the Swiss and Hong Kong universities ranked so high.  UBC has dropped down the rankings and U of T has remained about where they were before.

It's also interesting to me how relatively low McGill and Queens are placed relative to how I perceive their reputation in Canada.

That said, maybe that's because that reputation - such as it is - is based on something different than the Times evaluation criteria.

[HVC]

I know McGill has some issues with the language law stuff ( we talked about it briefly) , but I didn't think the effect would be that fast. So could be other factors.

[Valmy]

An interesting new ranking of world universities from Time magazine:

The World's Top Universities of 2026

A few things that I found interesting:

1. Chicago (#5) is ranked higher than Harvard (#6)
2. Michigan (cradle of geniuses) is ranked #9, ahead of every other US public university
3. Ohio State (#33) is ranked higher than Texas (#37) and both are ranked above Carnegie Mellon (#38)

Note that these are not the US News undergraduate school rankings, but rankings of the universities as a whole.

Sorry I cannot take seriously a list with the online degree mill Arizona State listed as a top University. 

That is just embarrasing.

[Oexmelin]

Americans measure success as the ability to accelarate its shift towards authoritarianism.

I'm glad Queen's and McGill are so low.

[crazy canuck]

Interesting that the Swiss and Hong Kong universities ranked so high.  UBC has dropped down the rankings and U of T has remained about where they were before.

It's also interesting to me how relatively low McGill and Queens are placed relative to how I perceive their reputation in Canada.

That said, maybe that's because that reputation - such as it is - is based on something different than the Times evaluation criteria.

McGill has had some problems in recent years with the funding it receives from the Quebec government.  Queens was never going to place highly on this list.  This is a ranking of research universities. Queen's is more of an undergraduate university and in that category it, along with SFU, always rank near the top.

[viper37]

I know McGill has some issues with the language law stuff ( we talked about it briefly) , but I didn't think the effect would be that fast. So could be other factors.

Restrictions on international students, maybe? It's hard to come in Quebec and Canada now than it used to be, even for studies.

[Sheilbh]

Very odd list. Rare to see one of these with Chinese universities so low, Tsinghua normally comes pretty high for example.

[Grey Fox]

There is no honour in making the top of the Capitalist leaderboard.

[Tonitrus]

My impression of US college/university rankings has always been that of as kind of a self-licking ice cream cone feeding back in to the University Industrial Complex.

(I've kind of had that view that we tend to ignore, in our debates on college loans, is that they are a kind of massive government subsidy of colleges/universities with the government acting as the loan shark)