questions about rankings

[importedalb]

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Quick question guys and gals...

Going around the country, almost every program has touted its excellence in a certain field of biological science. But how do they know how they compare with each other in say, neuroscience? I've been to at least three different institutions that claim that they are tops in neuroscience.

Is there a place that actually ranks them based on reputation, NIH funding for specific research programs?

 

[Newquagmire]

us news

 

[Habari]

the usnews rankings for graduate programs only give the vaguest sense of rankings for 'tiers' of programs - nitpicking between 5 and 6, 1 and 4 etc... is moot because all are easily manipulatible depending on the formula.

basically there is a general reputation of a department [outstanding, good, mediocre, non-existent etc...] but most people pay much more attention to individuals [PIs].

when i applied last year, i interviewed everywhere for neuroscience programs - and the usual suspects [ucsf,columbia,harvard, washU, caltech, ucla, hopkins] etc claimed to be one of the, if not the best program for neuro. they are all excellent in their way - but clearly, if your're interested in electrophys vs axonal guidance vs development vs neurodegen vs computational neuro vs etc... the individuals matter most, and therefore the reputation of the department in that field depends on them.

smaller schools/departments with excellent people also get overshadowed because most rankings take into account sheer quantity of funds, rather than normalizing it per person. both measurements say different things about the place, but neither of these indicators replace - i'll say it again - the individuals at the place.

there is also a graduate rankings site that allows you to choose the factors most important to you [atmosphere of training, teaching, #of post-docs, money, stipend etc...] and generate a ranking list based on that. i'll try to find it ...

when visiting and revisiting - just try and see if there are a number of individuals you could even invision yourself working with, and also get a sense of the culture of the department - direction, atmosphere, size - and see if it works for you.