The world's top 100 universities ranked for medicine, biology and psychology

Harvard has topped the world rankings for biomedical sciences. Get the full QS rankings

Harvard University has topped the first ever top 100 world rankings for medicine, biological sciences and psychology. Photograph: Mark Peterson/ Corbis

Harvard university has swept the board ranking highest in the world's top 100 universities for medicine, biological sciences and psychology with Cambridge and Oxford following closely behind.

Once again, the elite American university has topped another top 100 world rankings list - it was revealed earlier this year that Harvard had topped the world university reputation list as compiled by Times Higher Education.

Although the US seem to have shown a surge in university rankings across the world, the UK does follow in second place according to the rankings published today by QS. Ten UK universities feature in the top 50 in at least one of the three subjects; medicine, biological sciences and psychology.

With the trend of major UK universities planning to charge the maximum £9000 fees, universities will be under even more pressure to ensure students get value for money with highly esteemed courses. The results from QS show three UK universities to enter the top ten world rankings for medicine; Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial whereas this reduces to just two for both biological sciences and psychology (Cambridge and Oxford).

One of the factors accredited to Harvard's high medicine ranking has been noted by QS for "pioneering work in stem cell research" which was carried out in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However both Oxford and Cambridge were praised for being "traditional UK research hubs" although it was noted that in the field of biological sciences, research citations fell short of their US counterparts.

We have compiled these rankings and all the QS rankings so far into a spreadsheet which can be downloaded below. The rankings feature scores broken down into citations, academic and employer rankings and feature both the biomedical sciences by individual subject and the engineering and computer sciences too. Below is a table showing the top 25 in all three biomedical sciences by subject.

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Data summary

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World's top 25 universities for medicine
Rank	Institution	Country	Academic	Employer	Citations	Scores
1	Harvard University	United States	100	100	84	93.6
2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	81.7	94.1	74.1	79.9
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States	62.6	83.2	100	79.6
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	76.5	90	79.2	78.9
5	Stanford University	United States	74.9	66.3	70.4	72.2
6	Yale University	United States	67.1	55.9	70.3	67.3
7	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	63.5	54.5	67.2	64.1
8	Johns Hopkins University	United States	63.7	29.6	65.7	61.1
9	Imperial College London	United Kingdom	56.9	45.6	63.9	58.6
10	University of California, San Diego (UCSD)	United States	50.6	27	71.2	56.5
11	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States	32.4	38.1	90.8	56.3
12	University of Toronto	Canada	55.7	47.9	54	54.2
13	McGill University	Canada	45.9	63	60.4	53.4
14	Duke University	United States	39.7	57.3	68.6	53
15	The University of Melbourne	Australia	53.2	60.4	49.6	52.5
16	Columbia University	United States	42.8	60.8	62.2	52.4
17	University of California, San Francisco	United States	45.2	24.5	67.5	52.1
18	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore	58.3	57.9	42.3	51.9
19	University of Chicago	United States	41.2	46.4	66.5	51.8
20	The University of Tokyo	Japan	62.8	45.7	38.2	51.3
21	University of Pennsylvania	United States	40.1	48.6	63.5	50.3
22	University of Michigan	United States	39.5	44.3	64.8	50.1
23	Cornell University	United States	40.3	47.2	61	49.3
24	University of Washington	United States	41.4	27.8	64.2	49.2
25	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom	42.7	46.9	57	48.8
Source:QS

World's top 25 universities for biological sciences
Rank	Institution	Country	Academic	Employer	Citations	Scores
1	Harvard University	United States	98.6	100	78	90.5
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	United States	81.1	85.6	83.9	82.7
3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	100	88.2	54.3	80.5
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	86.6	85.2	51.5	72.4
5	Stanford University	United States	78.5	75.6	62.9	72
6	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States	86.7	63.8	51.9	70.5
7	Yale University	United States	62.1	68	59.8	61.8
8	California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	United States	58.2	38	67.7	60
9	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	60.6	49.5	57.8	58.4
10	University of California, San Diego (UCSD)	United States	61.9	34.4	55.1	56.4
11	Imperial College London	United Kingdom	62.8	57.1	43.9	54.7
12	University of Toronto	Canada	64.7	36.8	45.6	54.3
13	Johns Hopkins University	United States	54.6	37	56.9	53.8
14	Columbia University	United States	46.5	67.8	58.1	53.3
15	The University of Tokyo	Japan	71	46	30.1	52.1
16	Cornell University	United States	52.6	61.4	47.9	51.6
17	University of Pennsylvania	United States	43.4	71.9	56.4	51.5
18 =	McGill University	Canada	56.7	53.9	44.1	51.4
18 =	Princeton University	United States	48.9	53	54.1	51.4
18 =	University of Chicago	United States	47.3	49.9	56.8	51.4
21	Arizona State University	United States	16.5	7.3	100	49
22	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland	53.9	36.6	45.5	48.8
23	University of Michigan	United States	39.1	54.9	56.4	47.6
24	University of British Columbia	Canada	53.6	44.2	40.3	47.3
25 =	Duke University	United States	41.3	47.9	54.2	47.1
25 =	The University of Melbourne	Australia	53	66.1	35	47.1
Source:QS

World's top 25 universities for psychology
Rank	Institution	Country	Academic	Employer	Citations	Scores
1	Harvard University	United States	100	93.8	97	97.5
2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	83	100	88	89.1
3	Stanford University	United States	91.2	74.7	86.3	85.3
4	University of Oxford	United Kingdom	77.8	87.5	76.8	80.5
5	University of California, Berkeley (UCB)	United States	86.9	70.1	65.4	77.6
6	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	United States	74.4	59.2	81.6	71.3
7	Yale University	United States	72.2	63.6	78.2	70.8
8	The University of Melbourne	Australia	68	67.9	66.3	67.6
9	Princeton University	United States	58.9	46.5	98.5	63.1
10	McGill University	Canada	61.9	45.3	70	58.5
11	The University of Sydney	Australia	68.4	42.8	56.9	58.4
12	UCL (University College London)	United Kingdom	55	49.4	78.5	58
13	University of Toronto	Canada	68.4	32	66.7	57.1
14	University of Chicago	United States	56.7	38.3	84.5	56.7
15	University of Michigan	United States	63	31.8	74.3	55.9
16	University of British Columbia	Canada	64.4	33.5	67.5	55.8
17	Columbia University	United States	53	42.9	80.4	55.5
18	The University of Tokyo	Japan	66.4	47.1	33.6	54.1
19	Cornell University	United States	52.3	45.2	71.6	54
20	Australian National University	Australia	53.9	42.6	68.3	53.4
21	University of Pennsylvania	United States	46.2	46.3	81.2	53.2
22	National University of Singapore (NUS)	Singapore	64.7	40.3	38.4	52.1
23	New York University (NYU)	United States	54.9	27.5	80.3	51.8
24	Carnegie Mellon University	United States	48.2	27.9	90.9	50.7
25	Peking University	China	57.9	38.1	47.6	49.9
Source:QS

Ivy League Acceptance Rates for the Class of 2015

Ivy League acceptance rates for the class of 2015 are in. While the admissions process will continue to drag on into the summer as colleges manage their waitlists, most schools now have a pretty good picture of the acceptance numbers for the class of 2015. For the country's most selective colleges, the picture isn't pretty. Below are the acceptance rates for the eight Ivy League schools. For all of these elite schools, acceptance rates are lower this year than last.

The lower acceptance rate isn't necessarily because there are more students going to college this year. Rather, a similar number of students are sending out more applications. The lower the acceptance rates go, the more students feel they need to apply to a lot of schools to improve their chances of getting in. This situation is going to make it more difficult for colleges to predict their yield, and as a result we're going to see a lot of students stuck in waitlist limbo.

The chart below shows what the Ivy League application numbers and acceptance rates look like for the class of 2015. To learn more about each school including typical SAT and ACT scores, click on the school's name in the table.

College	Number of Applications	Acceptance Rate	Source
Brown	30,948	8.7%	Brown News and Events
Columbia	~35,000	6.9%	Columbia Spectator
Cornell	36,392	18%	Cornell Daily Sun
Dartmouth	22,385	9.7%	Dartmouth Now
Harvard	34,950	6.2%	Harvard Gazette
Princeton	27,189	8.4%	News at Princeton
University of Pennsylvania	31,659	12.3%	Daily Pennsylvanian
Yale	27,282	7.4%	Yale News
Compare ACT scores for the Ivy League
Compare SAT scores for the Ivy League

Oxford and Cambridge introduce new entrance tests

Students are facing a battery of new tests to get into Oxford and Cambridge amid continuing fears that A-levels fail to mark out the best candidates.

More than 70 per cent of Oxford applicants are required to sit a pre-interview entrance exam in subjects such as history, English, languages, mathematics and science this term, compared with 50 per cent just two years ago.

The development has fuelled a dramatic rise in demand for private tutors set up to help teenagers negotiate the admissions process. One company reported a doubling in the number of enquiries for coaching specifically to pass Oxbridge entrance tests.

It comes as record numbers of school-leavers attempt to get into the two universities in 2010. Oxford has already announced a 12 per cent rise in applications.

An increase in entrance tests – sat by thousands of candidates this month – will fuel fears that tutors are finding it increasingly difficult to select the best candidates from record numbers of pupils leaving school with at least three As at A-level.

In the mid-1980s, fewer than half of Oxbridge applicants gained straight As, but this year every candidate is expected to achieve the feat.

Earlier this month, the Government announced a major review of university admissions, suggesting that A-levels should not dictate entry to the most sought-after courses.
Mike Nicholson, Oxford’s director of admissions, said: "Without aptitude tests as part of the admissions process, it would be impossible for Oxford to effectively shortlist candidates for interview in the subjects that are most over-subscribed.

"When we are presented with 17,000 candidates for around 3,200 places, all of whom have glowing references and excellent academic records, aptitude tests and interviews allow us to differentiate between the very best and the very good."

Applications to Oxford and Cambridge close in October – before the deadline for other universities.

Both institutions largely abolished entrance exams in most subjects in the mid-90s under pressure from state schools which claimed they discriminated in favour of pupils from the private sector.

But different tests have been slowly reintroduced over the last decade. Oxford insisted they beared almost no resemblance to the old entrance exams.

Students applying for 36 different subjects at Oxford are now required to take a pre-interview aptitude test. Subjects such as experimental psychology and PPP (philosophy, psychology and physiology) were added for the first time this year.

At Cambridge, students take a generic "thinking skills" tests after applying to study computer science, economics, engineering, land economy, natural sciences and PPS (politics, psychology and sociology) at some colleges. For the first time this year, Cambridge is also running its own law exam after dropping the Law National Admissions Test, which is used to dictate entry to many courses across the country.
Most exams are taken in the first week of November or early December.

Sucedo, a company offering exam coaching, said it had seen a "massive upsurge" in demand for help to pass admissions tests, particularly from state school students.

A spokesman said: "Entrance examinations are growing exponentially year-by-year, and will expand beyond Oxbridge soon, in force."

James Uffindell, founder of Oxbridge Applications, which advises students applying to leading universities, said seminars focusing on entrance exams were over-subscribed this year and sales of mock tests doubled.

[Source]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6561399/Oxford-and-Cambridge-introduce-new-entrance-tests.html

Oxbridge 'prefers interviews to exam results'

Oxford and Cambridge universities are increasingly relying on interviews to select the best students because A-levels and GCSEs fail to distinguish between bright and weak candidates, according to researchers.

As a result many applicants could see their fate decided by their responses to famously bizarre questions put by Oxbridge interviewers to test their knowledge and powers of reasoning.

School exams alone are no longer a marker of sixth-formers’ ability as record numbers now leave with a string of A grades, it is claimed.

Universities cannot even rely on references from teachers who are reluctant to criticise students for fear of being served with an official complaint.

Geoff Parks, the director of admissions at Cambridge, said interviews were becoming "more important" as other methods used to select sixth-formers are eroded.

But according to Oxbridge Applications, which advises people applying to the ancient institutions, interviews are more likely to benefit those from elite independent schools or state grammars.

They are more likely to be "coached" by teachers to give the best answers, they say.

Last year a student applying for a geography course at Cambridge was asked: "What is the population of Croydon?"

Another applying for physics at Oxford was asked: "How high can I go up a mountain having only eaten a Mars bar?"

James Uffindell, the founder of Oxbridge Applications, said interviews often punished comprehensive school pupils.

Figures from Cambridge show that 34 per cent of independent school pupils and 31 per cent from state grammars who apply get a place. However, just 21 per cent of comprehensive pupils get in.

At Oxford, more than 32 per cent of independent school pupils who applied were admitted last year.

Mr Uffindell said: "Tutors are understandably having to reply on the interview — what else do you do when a quarter of all A-level papers are now marked an A?

"This means pupils from the state comprehensives and the less well-known independent schools will find it harder to get in. They don’t have the amount of knowledge of the Oxbridge interview process that perhaps they have in the big private schools, where many teachers know the type of questions that are going to be asked and can provide coaching."

Earlier research by Oxbridge Applications showed that almost one in 10 state school students who had good grades did not apply to Oxbridge because they lacked confidence about the interview process.

An Oxford spokesman insisted the interview process was fair to all students. "One of the reasons for asking questions that require some lateral thinking is to really examine how a candidates thinks, rather than how they’ve been coached or what they’ve been taught," she said.

"They are looking for raw aptitude, not polish.”

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563343/Oxbridge-prefers-interviews-to-exam-results.html

Oxford University applicants asked: 'What's normal for humans?'

Oxford applicants are being asked to assess the academic merits of Coronation Street and invent a new musical instrument as part of university interviews, it emerged today.


Oxford University released a series of sample questions to destroy traditional "myths" surrounding the interview process.

The university is increasingly relying on interviews and aptitude tests to assess students’ ability and reasoning power amid record numbers of applications.

As students prepare to negotiate the Oxford selection system in coming weeks, academics released a series of sample questions to debunk well-worn “myths” surrounding the process.

Mike Nicholson, the university’s director of admissions, said interview questions were aimed at “pushing students to think, not recite specific facts or answers”.

In one psychology interview, applicants to Brasenose College were asked: “What is ‘normal’ for humans?”
Students applying to study biological sciences at St Anne’s College, Oxford, were shown a cactus by one academic and told: “Tell me about it.”

A biomedical sciences interview at St Peter’s College asked applicants: “Why do a cat's eyes appear to 'glow' in the dark?”

And at Pembroke College, theology students were asked: “Is someone who risks their own life – and those of others – in extreme sports or endurance activities a hero or a fool?”

Some 17,144 people applied for just 3,200 undergraduate places at Oxford last year and numbers are expected to continue to rise amid growing demand for degree courses across Britain.

The ancient institution already employs one of the most rigorous selection procedures in the world, with straight As at GCSE and A-level seen as a minimum entry requirement.

Most students are forced to take two interviews, aptitude tests, submit written work and supply references – on top of exam grades.

But Dr Nicholas Owen, an admissions tutor for the Department of Politics and International Relations, insisted the university was not trying to "catch candidates out with trick questions".

The university released six sample questions taken from real interviews conducted in recent years. It comes ahead of interviews being staged in December.

In an English literature interview, applicants to Regent’s Park College were asked: “Why do you think an English student might be interested in the fact that Coronation Street has been running for 50 years?”
Dr Lynn Robson, an English lecturer, said the question was designed to show how literary analysis techniques can be applied to popular culture.

It was also intended to provoke discussion about issues such as storytelling techniques, mixing humorous and serious storylines and the use of serialisation, she said.

In a music interview at Merton College, students were asked: “If you could invent a new musical instrument, what kind of sound would it make?”

Dr Dan Grimley, from the college’s music faculty, said: “This question is really very open-ended, and I'm interested in answers which demonstrate a critical imagination at work; what kinds of sounds do instruments/voices make now, and how might these be imaginatively extended or developed?”
Mr Nicholson said: “There are many myths surrounding Oxford interviews, and they can be the most anxiety-provoking part of the Oxford application process for students.

“These questions show that the interviews are not designed to see how quickly students get the ‘right’ answer or show off specialist knowledge, but to gauge how they respond to new ideas.”


Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8073314/Oxford-University-applicants-asked-Whats-normal-for-humans.html