Applied Math School Rankings?

[Luke90275]

Hello all,

Is there anywhere I can find an accurate rankings of applied math schools?  I have seen US New's List, but I have heard that it is not the most accurate (and it only includes 17 schools). They also have an overall math program list which seems decent for the most part, except that I am looking specifically for a list of Applied Math Schools.  Also, I've seen AMS's Tier List which seems really good, other than the fact that the tiers (especially tier 1 which is what I'm mostly looking into) are so broad. Again this tier list seems to be for overall math, which I would like to find a resource for applied math. Other than those two sources, many seem to be very inaccurate and random at times.  

Is there any resource that more accurately ranks schools for their applied math programs? This can be a list, a tier list, or even a list of the top 10 applied math schools.  

Thank you guys so much!

[Stat Assistant Professor]

There are also the NRC rankings: https://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-Applied/124704

It's best to think of rankings in any field as approximations for prestige (outside of the top 1-3 or so programs). For Applied Math, NYU Courant and UCLA really are in a league of their own. For Statistics, Stanford truly is the best in terms of research output, number of prominent faculty (some in their 70s and 80s who are STILL very active in research, e.g. Efron and Diaconis), and academic placements. But below that, you could probably make the case for swapping a few programs here and there, moving a few programs up or down, etc. Overall, I wouldn't be surprised if these rankings you've linked to are a pretty good approximation for prestige, though.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Stat Postdoc Soon Faculty

[Luke90275]

Thank you for the reply! I just learned that AMS's tier list is based off of the NRC rankings (I'm not exactly sure using which metric but I would imagine a combination of the S and R ranks). It is good to know that Courant and UCLA are in a league of their own, which is also shown in the US New's List of applied math schools.  I also came to the consensus that rankings are more like approximations rather than definite numbers that everyone should take as facts.  I was a little confused when I saw the NRC rankings as NYU Courant has a high S rank of 6 and a high R rank of 3, while UCLA has a high S rank of 2 and a high R rank of 3, while a school like Princeton, which to my knowledge is (slightly) more known for its Pure Math, has a ranking of 1 almost across the board.  I was wondering why this discrepancy exists between Courant and UCLA being in a tier of their own yet not having the highest rankings on NRC?