US News Rankings -- any opinion?

[Conference_Girl]

Vanderbilt

TC Columbia

Harvard

Stanford

U of Oregon

Johns Hopkins

UCLA

Edited April 15, 2010 by Conference_Girl

[ilikemoney]

Vanderbilt

TC Columbia

Harvard

Stanford

U of Oregon

Johns Hopkins

UCLA

I've always been surprised that Johns Hopkins ranks so high in education.

I can't speak too strongly -- all my information about the education school is second-hand. I live in Baltimore and love the University. I'm going there to start a PhD next year to study social science stuff, with a focus on education.

I'm surprised because I currently teach in Maryland, and I have never met a single teacher who has walked in and out of that building and left with a positive opinion. Unanimously, every person I ever have talked to has mentioned that the classes lack rigor and are unhelpful to their teaching. My old roommate felt so strongly he quit his all expenses paid master's program. Since the program focuses so much on practitioners, and not academic research, this worries me doubly.

My guess is that three things push up its rank: 1) its close relationship with the business school (I feel like USNEWS eats that stuff up); 2) its participation in the IES predoctoral program (even though it seems like other departments really carry the work); and 3) the center for social organization of schools, which is sponsored by the university.

My feeling is you can do a hell of a job studying education in departments like economics and sociology at Hopkins, but the research programs in the Ed School are, I've heard, lacking.

Hope I'm wrong!

Edited April 15, 2010 by west

[michigan girl]

I personally wouldn't put too much emphasis on the overall rankings. The department rankings (education policy, higher education, etc.) are much more important.

For example, Michigan is underranked at #14, yet at least six of its departments are ranked in the top ten (higher education being #1).

Edited April 16, 2010 by michigan girl