U.S. institutions dominate ranking of top universities

I've met brilliant people from tiny colleges and near idiots from "name brand" universities and vice versa. The name brand might have recognition and might open some click-ish doors, but it doesn't replace hard work and persistence. I'll never understand the desire for parents to send their children to "Ivy League" schools unless they want to work in NYC at a brokerage company.

A link http://www.shanghairanking.com/ to the article. For engineering, my University is in the top 5 (top 40 overall). Guess I should ask for a raise at work, even if I don't believe these rankings.

In what alternative universe is the University of Florida better than the London School of Economics?

All of these surveys are fairly meaningless because they only consider objective and quantifiable data such as the number of papers published and cited, nobel prizes etc.

They completely ignore the most important factor which is the entirely subjective and unmeasurable prestige that these universities have in the eyes of the public. No matter what the data says, Oxford is always going to be better than the University of Chicago,...it just is.

Still better than the US News and World Report rankings which weigh endowments ($$$) too much.