Harvard and Yale are often referred to as “the best of the best”.
But when it comes to the highest ranked universities, these and other Ivy League schools don’t
even make it into the top five.
So what are the world’s best universities?
Well, according to an index by the Times Higher Education, Stanford ranks 3rd in the world.
Most people associate Stanford with tech-capital Silicon Valley, which is where the school
is located.
And in fact, it’s largely because of Stanford that the region is now the global capital
of entrepreneurship and technology.
In the 1940’s and 50’s the university heavily encouraged students and faculty to
start their own companies, eventually leading to companies like Google and Snapchat.
And still today, the school is known to produce some of the most successful entrepreneurs.
A Stanford degree is in extremely high demand, and the school maintains the lowest acceptance
rate in the country, admitting less than 5 percent of applicants.
Much of Stanford’s credibility and desirability comes from its impressive list of alumni,
which includes Chelsea Clinton, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and John F Kennedy.
Even better than Stanford is the California Institute of Technology.
Also known as Caltech, the university is predominantly focused on engineering, technology and applied
sciences.
In the 1930’s the university founded NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which builds space
robots and conducts astronomy missions.
Caltech continues to manage JPL, and the two have worked together on dozens of space missions.
The school’s faculty and alumni include 34 Nobel Laureates, and according to a 2015
study, more Caltech graduates go on to earn PhDs than any other alma mater.
But the best university in the world is located outside the United States.
Oxford University in the UK is regularly ranked first.
Compared to Caltech and Stanford, Oxford is enormous, with 44 colleges and more than
100 libraries.
It’s also one of the oldest universities, with historians tracing instruction as far
back as the 11th century.
Oxford’s ascension to the top comes in part from its exceptionally high research income.
Between 2014 and 2015, charities, individuals and businesses funnelled nearly $680 million
dollars into the university for research.
Oxford is also home to the largest university press and one of the oldest and most prestigious
scholarships, The Rhodes Scholarship.
While there are many lists ranking colleges around the world, most tend to rank these
three schools near the top.
And although most of the top schools are in the west, a number of schools in China are
quickly making their way up the list.
Over the last two decades, China has invested more than $30 billion dollars in its best
universities.
And it seems to be working.
The number of Chinese Universities in the top 200 doubled in 2016, with Beijing’s
Peking University ranking highest, although still only in 42nd place worldwide.
Chinese parents are known to send their children to study in the US, however with China’s
own universities on the rise, we may someday see the tables turned.
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So the best schools don’t seem to be part of the Ivy League, but these eight private
universities still in high demand and take in millions of dollars every year.
So why is the Ivy League so powerful?
Find out in this video.
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