# What foreign universities do you see as prestigious? And your own country? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380 "2016-08-10T20:04:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/21 "2016-08-11T17:14:21Z")
In Japan the top two universities are also “public” (i.e. financed through the government): Tokyo University (Todai) and Kyoto University (Kyodai) - both really hard to get into, as I understand it, and once you’re in it’s pretty much your meal ticket. The private universities like Waseda are all second-tier. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/22 "2016-08-11T17:21:39Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Switzerland: ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) They don’t seem so special. They can’t even abbreviate their name correctly! 😛 My contribution is [Wossamotta U.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wossamotta_U)in Frostbite Falls, MN. It’s famous the world over. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/23 "2016-08-11T20:03:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Vetinary? 😃 It’s a school of Pratchett studies. Smart people, but sometimes unbearable. 😃 > [@bordelond](#): > > - In the U.S.: The nine Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, U of Michigan, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, U of Texas, Tulane Eight Ivies. Unless you’re counting Barnard, which is in it’s own grouping of 7 (Sisters). Or Radcliffe which is even less independent from IL. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/24 "2016-08-11T20:07:57Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Eight Ivies. Unless you’re counting Barnard, which is in it’s own grouping of 7 (Sisters). > > Or Radcliffe which is even less independent from IL. Nah … just had “nine” in my head. The Ivy League schools used to play a nine-game football schedule during the 1980s, when I followed college football most closely. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/25 "2016-08-11T20:16:49Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think one thing in many countries is that a department or program at a particular school may be absolutely world-class, but the rest of the school may be merely good, or even not so great. That’s definitely the case in Germany, where perceived excellence is granulated mostly at the department or even chair level, the universities as a whole having comparable levels of funding. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/26 "2016-08-11T23:56:53Z")
In tech in the Bay Area, these are the schools outside of the US that people tend to pay attention to: Canada: Waterloo, UBC, McGill, Toronto India: Any of the IITs but IIT Bombay, IIT Madras & IIT Hyderabad in particular China: Tsinghua, Peking and Shanghai Universities UK: Cambridge but not Oxford. Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham also merit a mention. Europe: ETH Zurich, Delft, Ecole Poly, Uppsala Australia: Melbourne, Sydney, UNSW, ANU Israel: Technion, Tel Aviv Asia: National University of Singapore, KAIST, NTU Japan: Tokyo & Kyoto Middle East and Africa: Nothing from this region comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/27 "2016-08-12T00:01:24Z")
I’m American. Domestic: UC Berkeley, California institute of technology, Massachusetts institute of technology, Harvard. International: UK: Oxford & Cambridge South Korea: Seoul National University China: Tsinghua University India: IIT Really, the tertiary educational system of California deserves to be in a class all its own. MA has a good system too, but not as good as California. California has the best public and private schools in the nation. UC Berkely, UCLA, UCSD, UCSF, UCSB, USC, CalTech, Stanford, etc. Basically the public schools are world class and the best schools in that state (UCB, Caltech, Stanford, etc) are all easily in the top 20 on earth. I think the ratio of nobel prizes to faculty and students at CalTech is far higher than MIT. I"ll check again. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/28 "2016-08-12T00:12:03Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I think the ratio of nobel prizes to faculty and students at CalTech is far higher than MIT. I"ll check again. > **[List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation#Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology)** > > The following list shows the university affiliations of individual winners of the Nobel Prize since 1901 and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences since 1969. The affiliations are those at the time of the Nobel Prize announcement. Universities all adopt different metrics to claim Nobel affiliates, some generous while others more stringent, since some only count academicians at the time of announcement while others include all visitors and professors of various ranks as well. Inconsist... MIT has 85, Caltech has 35, so MIT has 2.5x more. However MIT has 5x more students and faculty. So per capita CalTech is doing twice as good on that front. Not that it matters, but worth mentioning about the quality of California’s higher educational system. Someone who went to the UC system once said that an average school in the UC system was about equal to a top school in most states or nations, and that a top public or private school in California was among the top in the world. My point is that domestically, California is in a totally different class than the rest of the country. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/29 "2016-08-12T00:46:34Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Middle East and Africa: Nothing from this region comes to mind. The best examples are probably American University Beirut and maybe Cairo University. Saudi Arabia also has a lot of highly ranked ones but I don’t know anything about them. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Really, the tertiary educational system of California deserves to be in a class all its own. MA has a good system too, but not as good as California. California has the best public and private schools in the nation. UC Berkely, UCLA, UCSD, UCSF, UCSB, USC, CalTech, Stanford, etc. Basically the public schools are world class and the best schools in that state (UCB, Caltech, Stanford, etc) are all easily in the top 20 on earth. It’s important to note that UCSF is a med school only, not offering undergraduate classes, and thus doesn’t really compete with the others and is sometimes in a separate category. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/30 "2016-08-12T02:29:42Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I believe that both MIT and CalTech are good for research in technological fields; I’m not so sure they’re good at teaching. My nephew got his PhD from MIT. They’re world-class at that technology thing, but why would anyone go to MIT for Linguistics or Theater Arts (genuine degree programs)? On the other hand, the University of Chicago currently has four Nobel Laureates on its faculty. Does anyone really put it in the category of “prestigious”? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/31 "2016-08-12T03:27:05Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > My nephew got his PhD from MIT. They’re world-class at that technology thing, but why would anyone go to MIT for Linguistics or Theater Arts (genuine degree programs)? > > On the other hand, the University of Chicago currently has four Nobel Laureates on its faculty. Does anyone really put it in the category of “prestigious”? Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at MIT so I can understand why someone would want to study there. However I agree with you on concepts like theater arts. I’m not sure why you’d pursue that at MIT. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/32 "2016-08-12T04:06:31Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > On the other hand, the University of Chicago currently has four Nobel Laureates on its faculty. Does anyone really put it in the category of “prestigious”? 😕 E.g. US News puts it at #4 among national universities, tied with Stanford and Columbia. Forbes says #20. I bet its Econ majors are insufferable, but still… ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/33 "2016-08-12T05:17:29Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > It’s not really a university in any meaningful sense, though. Apart from processing the admin for awarding degrees, and having one bar, it doesn’t do anything - the colleges are completely independent. If you go to KCL (King’s College London) then you don’t also have the opportunity to take classes at UCL (University College London), for example. And you apply to the individual colleges, not UoL. Plus, all of the colleges of UoL are good, but some are not that prestigious - Queen Mary’s, Birkbeck, St George’s. Queen Mary is pretty well regarded for law, especially research LLM’s. > [@](#): > > Nava - Oxford and Cambridge teach pretty much every subject. Most UK universities do; if they don’t, you know that from the name, like the Royal Vetinary College. Yes, but generally speaking Cambridge is more known for the Sciences and Oxford for the humanities, exceptions exist, of course. Of course, it does also depend on which College you go to. For Pakistan, I would say Law: [Sindh Muslim Law College](http://www.smlawcollege.edu.pk/) Most senior judges are from there. Medicine: [King Edwards](http://kemu.edu.pk/) formerly part of Punjab University. Sciences: [Government College](http://www.gcu.edu.pk/), [NUST](http://www.nust.edu.pk/Pages/Home.aspx) and the various University of Engineering and Technology Campues. Social Sciences: [Lahore University of Management Sciences](https://lums.edu.pk/). Business School: [IBA Karachi](http://iba.edu.pk/). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/34 "2016-08-12T07:10:36Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at MIT so I can understand why someone would want to study there. However I agree with you on concepts like theater arts. I’m not sure why you’d pursue that at MIT. I can see wanting to do it as a second degree, as well as, since the American requirements for University degrees include things like “and 3 credits from the Humanities”, being a college which can give students those credits in a field that lots of techies like as a hobby. It sounds like the kind of schools where the gaffer, sound engineers and electrician positions would fill in no time 🙂 Actors, perhaps not so much. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/35 "2016-08-12T12:32:38Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > The University of London is pretty well-known and prestigious, I’d say. It’s definitely the one I’d have mentioned after Oxford and Cambridge For me, it’s London School of Economics after Oxbridge, then I’d probably guess Edinburgh. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/36 "2016-08-12T12:34:52Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > My nephew got his PhD from MIT. They’re world-class at that technology thing, but why would anyone go to MIT for Linguistics or Theater Arts (genuine degree programs)? > > On the other hand, the University of Chicago currently has four Nobel Laureates on its faculty. Does anyone really put it in the category of “prestigious”? Absolutely! I’d rank it higher than probably half the Ivies. No matter where you rank it numerically, I can’t see anyone not thinking it’s prestigious. It routinely shows up high on those best universities in the world list, too. [Here. For example, at #9.](http://www.thebestschools.org/features/100-best-universities-in-world-today/) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/37 "2016-08-12T13:25:22Z")
People don’t think of University of Chicago much anymore because it no longer has Division I NCAA athletic programs. But the school was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and won seven conference football titles before disbanding it’s football program in 1939. Chicago withdrew fully from the Big Ten in 1946. U of Chicago felt at the time that it had to make a decision to go all in for athletics or all in for academics, as it was thought internally that the institution could not fully support both endeavors. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/38 "2016-08-12T13:36:05Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > People don’t think of University of Chicago much anymore because it no longer has Division I NCAA athletic programs. I highly doubt that, especially if you’re talking international prestige. Or even domestically. I went to Northwestern, which has Division I NCAA sports and a similar ranking to U of C on the US World News lists, but I’d consider U of C significantly more prestigious, despite lack of athletics. I mean, how can’t you? It has 89 Nobel laureates affiliated with it. Only Harvard, Columbia. and Cambridge have more. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/39 "2016-08-12T14:01:57Z")
Because that’s not what most people would think of when you ask about “prestigious”. It would be “places you’ve heard of and have a positive image of”. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380/40 "2016-08-12T14:30:32Z")
USAian here. Foreign Universities that tick off my “wow, you must be pretty smart” box: Canada - University of Toronto, McGill, University of British Columbia UK - Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College Switzerland - ETH Zürich France - l’université Pierre et Marie Curie, Ecole Polytechnique China - Tsinghua University Iran - University of Tehran Germany - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology India - Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Russia - Lomonosov Moscow State University [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foreign-universities-do-you-see-as-prestigious-and-your-own-country/762380.md?page=3)