Who compiles Gre vocab practice the ratings of foreign universities and how? Is it worth relying solely on them when choosing a foreign university? What are the chances of Russian school graduates to enter the top five universities in the world rankings?
If you are determined to pursue your education abroad, you will inevitably face the question of university selection criteria: There are more than 5000 universities in Great Britain and the USA alone. As a well-known proverb says about the fish and the man, the latter always looks for where it is better and I must say that most prospective students are relying on the ratings to show where it is better. For many future students and their parents the ratings of universities are the only and unquestionable basis for choosing a university abroad. In Russia, there is also a widespread opinion that only universities in the top 20 should be selected. Undoubtedly it is prestigious to have a degree from one of the best foreign universities, but you need to take into account some nuances.
The ranking is not the same as the rating.
To begin with, the most influential rankings are the Times Good University Guide, US News, QS World University Rankings, and Shanghay Ranking. The Times ranks the British universities in terms of overall rankings and tables for 60 majors. This ranking evaluates undergraduate programs and is the most detailed ranking by field of study. This ranking is unmatched by any other country. Rankings of U.S. colleges and universities are provided annually by U.S. News. And the most quoted university rankings around the world are Shanghai Jiaotong University and QS World University Rankings.
So, world-renowned and well-respected organizations compile rankings of universities, on which prospective students and their parents all over the world are guided. Students strive to get into the best universities and universities all over the world fight for places in the rankings. What is the catch?
The thing is that each ranking has its own methodology: it is based on completely different criteria and their combinations. For example, such as the number of graduates and professors who received the Nobel Prize, the quality of teaching, the quality of research, admission requirements, the ratio of students to professors, the amount of money invested in university facilities, the percentage of students dropping out, the percentage of graduates with honors, and the percentage of students who find a job within six months after graduation. It is unlikely that you will find it all that useful to know how many British students get jobs after they graduate from the university. Also unlikely you would think to choose the school by the number of graduates – Nobel laureates: to put it mildly, it is indirectly relevant to your training at the university, but it is these criteria that raise the school in the ratings! Does this mean that we have to give up studying the rankings altogether? Not at all! But to learn how to use the information provided in them, of course, is worth it.
Set a goal to get in the top twenty universities known rating – a very ambitious task, but, unfortunately, difficult to achieve. Choosing a foreign university, relying only on published ratings, you need to consider the Russian reality. After all, all rankings publish admission requirements in relation to their system of secondary education, which differs from the Russian one. If we are talking about the highest ranking universities in the world, such as Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California Los Angeles, University of Cambridge or University of Oxford, the first requirement for admission is to obtain a high go math common core grade 5 school diploma in the country where the university is located – the United States or Britain, i.e. at least two years of schooling in one of these countries. And this certificate must be only excellent, reflecting not only academic talents, but also personal qualities – that is the evaluation system abroad. There are no other options to prepare for the best universities in the world. So, if you are ambitious and determined, excellent knowledge of the language, you have a diploma with honors from a British or American high school – you have a chance to get into any university of the top five of your favorite rating. If you do not have all of the above, then most likely a number of lines of the world ranking of universities you have to skip and take into account the top twenty, thirty or even one hundred universities in the country in which you dream to study. This is not a cause for discouragement, by the way: with more than 4,500 universities in the United States, even the top 100 are considered prestigious.
