US News rankings vs phds.org rankings

[topsecret]

What is the general consensus regarding the differences in rankings by US News and by phds.org? Which one is more reliable? There are some pretty notable differences.

[Legendre]

What is the general consensus regarding the differences in rankings by US News and by phds.org? Which one is more reliable? There are some pretty notable differences.

I don't think any of the rankings are "accurate".

E.g. PhDs.org rank Brown above MIT, UCLA and Caltech for applied maths - not so sure about that. Also, Cornell is ranked above Harvard, NYU and Columbia - not so sure about that too! UPenn is no where to be found.

IMHO US News, although still flawed, is more indicative of the departments but its still shit. E.g. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-gr ... s-rankings -> rankings are derived from 112 surveys sent to maths department, in which only 34% responded.

So the ranking is the opinion of around 38 people from unknown departments, who may be clerks filling out the surveys on behalf of the director of graduate studies or department head.

[dollar]

What are people's opinions on the shanghai rankings? http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2012.html

[viqule]

UC Boulder ranks higher than Toronto...

[Legendre]

What are people's opinions on the shanghai rankings? http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2012.html

Looks rubbish as well.

Uni of Wisconsin Madison, Minnesota and Texas A&M is ranked above Chicago, Yale, Cornell, Columbia?!

[mindreader]

What are people's opinions on the shanghai rankings? http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2012.html

Looks rubbish as well.

Uni of Wisconsin Madison, Minnesota and Texas A&M is ranked above Chicago, Yale, Cornell, Columbia?!

IMHO, Columbia APAM is somewhat average. they only have a few professors working on "traditional applied math"...

[Jenn]

What are people's opinions on the shanghai rankings? http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2012.html

My question concerns the following ranking: http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2013.html.

Does anybody ever heard of King Abdulaziz University of Saudi Arabia which is ranked higher than Caltech, Columbia, Yale, Northwestern, etc. (btw there are 2 more Saudi universities in top-100)?
The university did not appear in the same rankings in 2009-2011, firstly showed up in 2012 at 51-75 place, and jumped like a shot to 22nd in 2013.

The high position is due to
HiCi 25% Highly cited researchers in Mathematics category.
PUB 25% Papers Indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded in Mathematics fields
and especially to
TOP 25% Percentage of papers published in top 20% journals of Mathematics fields to that in all Mathematics journals

The faculty according to the names in entirely Arabic:
http://math.kau.edu.sa/Pages-Staff-Dire ... iyyah.aspx
http://math.kau.edu.sa/Pages-OUR-CONTAC ... AMPUS.aspx

Does anybody know personally, met at conferences, read papers of these professors?
What's going on in Saudi Arabia?
I was provided by a link http://www.imo-official.org/country_tea ... x?code=SAU, which proves that Saudi Arabia made an impressive progress in the rankings at the International Math Olympiads in recent years.

[mstrfrdmx]

What are people's opinions on the shanghai rankings? http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2012.html

My question concerns the following ranking: http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectM ... s2013.html.

Does anybody ever heard of King Abdulaziz University of Saudi Arabia which is ranked higher than Caltech, Columbia, Yale, Northwestern, etc. (btw there are 2 more Saudi universities in top-100)?
The university did not appear in the same rankings in 2009-2011, firstly showed up in 2012 at 51-75 place, and jumped like a shot to 22nd in 2013.

The high position is due to
HiCi 25% Highly cited researchers in Mathematics category.
PUB 25% Papers Indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded in Mathematics fields
and especially to
TOP 25% Percentage of papers published in top 20% journals of Mathematics fields to that in all Mathematics journals

The faculty according to the names in entirely Arabic:
http://math.kau.edu.sa/Pages-Staff-Dire ... iyyah.aspx
http://math.kau.edu.sa/Pages-OUR-CONTAC ... AMPUS.aspx

Does anybody know personally, met at conferences, read papers of these professors?
What's going on in Saudi Arabia?
I was provided by a link http://www.imo-official.org/country_tea ... x?code=SAU, which proves that Saudi Arabia made an impressive progress in the rankings at the International Math Olympiads in recent years.

The less cynical side of me says narrow indices such as these are prone to innocent anomalies. The more cynical side admits that this is probably a relic of the paper mill and conference industry overseas.