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Category: US Universities

  • Records Broken and the US Universities Slip

    Records Broken and the US Universities Slip

    QS University Rankings

    At the start of June, the 2021 the QS World University Rankings were published and 1300 universities across the world poured over the lists of colleges and universities to see if they had gone up or down from last year.

    The QS rankings are significant because they are one of the three most regarded rankings for universities across the world, the others being the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as Shanghai Ranking. In this blog, as well as looking at the headlines from the QS Rankings, I will also look at some of the trends that these rankings continue to show.

    The headline

    The US and UK continue to dominate the top ten positions, the US has five, while the UK has four. The final spot in the top ten is taken by Swiss based ETH Zurich in eighth place.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has, for an unprecedented tenth year, taken the top spot as the world’s best university in the rankings, while the University of Oxford has jumped three places into second place. Stanford University and the University of Cambridge are joint third while for the first time since the rankings have been produced, Yale University ranked on fifth Harvard moves out of the top three and into fifth. The remaining five in the top ten are:

    6th        California Institute of Technology

    7th        Imperial College London

    8th =     ETH Zurich

    8th =     UCL

    10th      University of Chicago

    Changing country representation

    While MIT chalked up a decade at the top of the rankings and the US continues to dominate them with 177 colleges and universities making the list, there has been a significant decline in their overall performance with 91 universities dropping down and only 29 gaining places. This decline has included some prestigious institutions, Harvard dropping out of the top three for the first time, Cornell dropping out of the top 20 and Duke out of the top 50.

    The US is by no means alone in having a difficult year in terms of the rankings, Japan and South Korea were other countries with big overall falls. Japan had 24 institutions move down the rankings while only five showed an improvement, South Korea had 20 go down and six improve.

    Read More: Early Decision Notification

    Meanwhile, there were strong performances by institutions in China, which is the most improved country in terms of the number of institutions that have improved their ranking, 32. For the first time, China had two universities in the top 20, Tsinghua University in 17th place and Peking University just behind in 18th. Australia was another country to see a strong performance, with 16 institutions gaining places, including all of the top four universities. Canada also saw more institutions rise than fall.

     How the rankings work

    In order to rank each university in a consistent way, the QS Rankings assess them across six metrics.

    ·      Academic reputation  40%

    ·      Employer reputation  10%

    ·      Faculty/student ratio  20%

    ·      Citations per faculty  20%

    ·      International faculty ratio  5%

    ·      International student ratio  5%

  • Who to ask for a Recommendation Letter?

    Who to ask for a Recommendation Letter?

    Who to Ask for a Recommendation Letter for College Application?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It is normal for colleges to ask you to send one or more letters of recommendation as part of your college application. Applications for competitive summer programs are another occasion when you may find yourself asking Who should I ask?

    Normally, what the college or summer program is looking for is an academic reference, an insight into your scholarly capabilities from those who have taught you and can comment on your approach to your academic pursuits and your overall presentation as a student.

    This article will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to go about identifying who to ask in a letter and how.

     Who to Ask?

    Sometimes you will be asked to get a letter of recommendation from a specific subject teacher. For example, if you want to attend a summer school looking at an aspect of physics, you may be asked for a reference from either your physics or maths teacher.

    More often than not, you will be asked for one or two teacher recommendations. You have probably had several teachers each year throughout school so there are lots of possible teachers to choose from. So who to choose?

    You might think that the teachers in the subjects you get the best grades in should be to ones to approach, and that may well be the case, but you should think more about which teachers know you best and will be better able to describe what you are like as a student, beyond your academic grades

    If you didn’t speak much and just sat in the back of the class during those classes, your teacher might not have much to say about you that couldn’t be inferred by transcripts. Instead, you should go for teachers who best know your personality, ambitions, and work ethic. These teachers are more likely to be enthusiastic about helping you out, and can probably craft a genuine, compelling letter of recommendation.

    A teacher you have had across several different grades can be an excellent choice as they have overseen your academic progress for a long time and can attest to your achievements and growth more than teachers who have only had you for one year or semester.

    Other teachers to consider could include:

    • Any teacher that is in your intended field of study, for instance, if you plan to pursue biochemistry on a pre-med track, your biology or chemistry teacher could be a strong contender, as they have probably seen your passion in the classroom.

    • Any class in which you participated more than usual, talked to the teacher after class or regularly asked questions can show how dedicated you are to learning.

    • Even if you weren’t the top academic performer, the teacher may have recognized your tenacity and your strong work ethic – important qualities for a college student to have.

    Whoever you choose, you need to be sure that they can write a great, personalized letter for you.

    Embark on a transformative higher education journey and elevate your path to academic success with the expert guidance and personalized support of an Ivy Central college counselor.

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