If you know that University X is ranked fourteenth on some particular survey, the ranking tells you nothing unless you know something about the criteria used to evaluate the institutions ranked. And the methodologies used to compile rankings are open to question. From what I have seen, in many cases, published rankings are based primarily on reputation (hence the title of this page). If you are ranking schools based on what people think of them, who is giving opinions, and what information those opinions are based on are all important considerations.
It's not that a school's reputation is or ought to be worthless as a criterion for choosing among several likely candidates for graduate study. But I do feel some attention ought to be paid to what that reputation is based on. It takes a long time for a degree program to develop a reputation among its peers or among employers. It takes quite some time for a reputation to change once it's earned, however, and for that reason there is always the chance that a program's reputation does not reflect the recent history or the current status of the program.
Some will argue that in some fields of study, the work going on in subfields is so diverse as to make an overall departmental ranking useless. "What you want," say proponents of this argument, "is the best program in your particular area of interest, and going by an overall ranking might steer you away from some high-quality programs."
I won't offer any more advice than this: if you are taking a ranking into consideration in your search for a graduate school, take the time to understand the basis for that ranking, to make sure that it measures aspects of the program that really matter to you.
I used to have a link to John Wehrli's website. Mr. Wehrli had what I felt were very useful insights into the pros and cons of the various criteria used to rank colleges and universities. At last check, his site was undergoing a makeover. As soon as I know his site open again, I will replace the link. If you would like to check the site's availability yourself, the URL is http://www.wehrli.ilrg.com.
The PhDs.org website contains a wide variety of information about all aspects of the doctoral study in math, sciences and engineering. They have information about ratings and a "do it yourself" rating link that allows you to compile your own rankings based on how important certain characteristics of doctoral programs are to you. The information used comes from a six year old report, however.
last revised: 03292000