WSJ rankings - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: WSJ rankings (/thread-25783.html)

---

RE: WSJ rankings - Mick - 10-03-2025

Stanford University in the rankings:

U.S.-focused rankings

WSJ / College Pulse “Best Colleges in the U.S.” — 2026

• Stanford: #1 The Wall Street Journal
  Top 5: 1) Stanford 2) Babson 3) Yale 4) Princeton 5) Harvard. The Wall Street Journal
  

U.S. News & World Report — Best National Universities 2026

• Stanford: #4 (tie)  College Kickstart+1
  Top 5: 1) Princeton 2) MIT 3) Harvard 4) Stanford (tie) 4) Yale (tie). College Kickstart
  

Forbes “America’s Top Colleges” — 2026

• Stanford: #4 Poets&Quants for Undergrads
  Top 5: 1) MIT 2) Columbia 3) Princeton 4) Stanford 5) UC Berkeley. Poets&Quants for Undergrads+1
  

Niche “Best Colleges in America” — 2026

• Stanford: #3 Niche+1
  Top 5: 1) MIT 2) Yale 3) Stanford 4) Harvard 5) Dartmouth. PR Newswire
  

---

Global rankings

QS World University Rankings — 2026

• Stanford: #3 Top Universities+1
  Top 5: 1) MIT 2) Imperial 3) Stanford 4) Oxford 5) Harvard. India Today+1
  

Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings — 2025 (2026 table not yet published as of today)

• Stanford: #2 (2025) Times Higher Education (THE)
  Top 5 (2025): 1) Oxford 2) Stanford 3) MIT 4) Harvard 5) Cambridge. Times Higher Education (THE)
  

ShanghaiRanking / ARWU — 2025

• Stanford: #2 ShanghaiRanking
  Top 5: 1) Harvard 2) Stanford 3) MIT 4) Cambridge 5) UC Berkeley. ShanghaiRanking
  

U.S. News — Best Global Universities 2025–2026

• Stanford: #3 PR Newswire+1
  Top 5: 1) Harvard 2) MIT 3) Stanford 4) Oxford 5) Cambridge. PR Newswire
  

---

RE: WSJ rankings - OCcardinal - 10-06-2025

When the US News & World Report rankings first came out they were based entirely on peer reputation.  Under that criteria, Stanford finished #1 each of the first 3 rankings (Cal was 5th):  University Rankings

But USN&WR had a problem. Academic reputations don't shift that much. So why would people want to pay for a magazine that keeps reporting the substantially same rankings over and over.  So for their 4th ranking they introduced "objective" components, like graduation rates, faculty resources, etc.  From that point on the rankings started floating all over the place.  (As you can see in the linked summary above, Stanford dropped to 6th and Cal dropped to 24th in the first "objective" ranking in 1989.)  Problem solved - unstable rankings lead to higher magazine sales.  Further tweaks to the methodology over time lead to further (welcomed) volatility. 

Note that there is no such thing as an objective ranking, because the selection and weighting of any given criteria is itself subjective.  I actually think the peer ranking methodology was a pretty good one (and not just because Stanford was consistently #1 under that ranking).  Universities are knowledgeable about what makes other universities good.  Certainly more knowledgeable than reporters trying to sell magazines.

---

RE: WSJ rankings - Mick - 10-06-2025

I make my living in the legal profession, and at my last count, there were 1,200+ directories, rankings, lists, and award programs that recognized lawyers and law firms for one thing or another. For all the reasons you cited, it is extremely difficult to rank and rate firms and lawyers. Too many moving parts, too many people who don't want to share opinions.

Just one example: the best known, most respected recognition program in our business renders their judgments based on a limited, cherry-picked submission of no more than 15 clients from any one firm. Fifteen. And from that, they extrapolate the a firm's quality, based upon the six of the fifteen (on average) respondents who choose to respond to this organization's interview request about that specific practice group / geography / industry group.

Take Life Sciences. This organization extends their top ranking, Band 1 recognition to five American law firms. One of the firms proudly advertises that it has "over 2,500" life sciences clients. It is a very high quality firm, no doubt. But their Band 1 ranking is based upon the in-depth interview with (likely) six clients out of their 2,500+ clients, at least that's what their North American Head of Research tells me..

That's the most respected program. The others? Let's just say they're not as academically rigorous.

---