It’s pretty easy to find university rankings, yet not as easy to determine exactly how the rankers came up with their listings. University ranking systems vary widely. Some focus on independent and very objective data, while others rank universities based on subjective reviews by students, faculty and others.
As you can imagine, some of the rankings become very subjective when too many interviews are used. On the other hand, objective data like “dropout rate” doesn’t do anything to tell you why so many students are dropping out. The best rankings are a combination of figures and subjective rankings. Here are some of the most common factors taken into account when ranking universities:
1. Academic Offering – This is a somewhat subjective, yet important piece of the rankings. Basically, rankers look for schools that have the best teachers in their respective fields, and offer the highest caliber programs in the fields of study they offer.
2. Resources – This measure looks at whether or not the school offers the tools the students need to succeed. It includes the student teacher ratio, number of tutors and other programs designed to help students academically.
3. Graduation rate- This ranking looks at the percentage of students who graduate (usually within six years) after entering the university.
4. Research – Most ranking systems evaluate the research department at the school, including how much income it brings in, how widely recognized it is and how highly ranked its individual researchers are.
5. Income – this is a look at both the income from tuition and the dollars donated by alumni. A school with more money can offer more resources.
6. Awards to Faculty and Staff- Some ranking systems evaluate how many prestigious awards, such as Nobel Peace Prizes and Fields Medals have been awarded to the faculty and staff.
7. Published Articles – Some rankings review the number of published articles coming out of a university. This is sometimes part of the review of the research department.
8. SAT Scores – Sometimes a school is ranked simply by how hard it is to get in. Looking at the average SAT scores of the student body is a good way to determine the difficulty of admission.
There are, of course, other criteria used by some ranking systems, but these are the most common criteria for overall ranking.
Many ranking systems will also measure these same criteria within each field of study that is offered by a university. Evaluating these rankings can be very helpful if you know your planned area of study. In fact, evaluating how a particular program ranks may be more important than the overall university ranking, especially if you are studying a highly specialized field that is not available at a wide range of colleges.
In the end, such ranking systems should be only part of your decision on where to go to college. It’s important, too, to choose a college where you feel comfortable and can enjoy the college experience while getting your education.

Phyllis Z. blogs on ways to find schools with the highest online university rankings 2011.