It's hard to resist the appeal of a ranked list, be it one for restaurants or baby names. But when it comes to universities and colleges, there's a whole different stake at play. Everything from a city's pride to the value of an individual's degree can rest on the reputation of the school -- not to mention, of course, whole generations of potential brilliance who decide their post-secondary education based on rankings.
The QS World University Rankings for 2012 was released today, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) named the top university in the world, based on academic reputation (weighted at 40 per cent), employer reputation (weighted at 10 per cent), faculty/student ratio (20 per cent), citations per faculty (20 per cent), international faculty ratio (five per cent) and international student ratio (five per cent). The University of Cambridge and Harvard University came in second and third, respectively.
But most importantly for Canadians, 2012 marks the first year when our two leading universities cracked the top 20 together, with McGill University standing at number 18, and the University of Toronto at number 19. McGill had dropped one spot from last year, while Toronto rose four, with the particular distinction of more published research than any other institution during the ranking period.
They also weren't the only Canadian schools to land on this prestigious list of only 200 in the world. Check out which schools made the list, along with their scores. Is your alma mater on there?
Also on HuffPost:
Best Canadian Universities
#191: University Of Waterloo
Overall: 50.2%
Academic reputation: 56.1%
Employer reputation: 71.5%
Faculty/student ratio: 48.2%
Citations per faculty: 20.8%
International faculty ratio: 80.1%
International student ratio: 45.6%
#175: Queen's University
Overall: 52.1%
Academic reputation: 47.8%
Employer reputation: 69.8%
Faculty/student ratio: 72.3%
Citations per faculty: 28%
International faculty ratio: 77.3%
International student ratio: 30.6%
#173: The University Of Western Ontario
Overall: 52.6%
Academic reputation: 49.3%
Employer reputation: 66.1%
Faculty/student ratio: 76.9%
Citations per faculty: 28.2%
International faculty ratio: 56.2%
International student ratio: 38%
#152: McMaster University
Overall: 56.1%
Academic reputation: 57.2%
Employer reputation: 35.4%
Faculty/student ratio: 84.7%
Citations per faculty: 30.5%
International faculty ratio: 67.2%
International student ratio: 54.2%
#114: Université de Montréal
Overall: 63.5%
Academic reputation: 69.3%
Employer reputation: 37.9%
Faculty/student ratio: 76.2%
Citations per faculty: 38.5%
International faculty ratio: 83.4%
International student ratio: 84.1%
#108: University Of Alberta
Overall: 64.2%
Academic reputation: 71.6%
Employer reputation: 46.6%
Faculty/student ratio: 52.8%
Citations per faculty: 58.1%
International faculty ratio: 90.8%
International student ratio: 71%
#45: University Of British Columbia
Overall: 78.6%
Academic reputation: 99.1%
Employer reputation: 77.8%
Faculty/student ratio: 92.1%
Citations per faculty: 25.9%
International faculty ratio: 61.4%
International student ratio: 73.2%
#19: University Of Toronto
Overall: 89.6%
Academic reputation: 99.9%
Employer reputation: 94.3%
Faculty/student ratio: 80.2%
Citations per faculty: 73.8%
International faculty ratio: 96.1%
International student ratio: 74.8%
#18: McGill University
Overall: 90.4%
Academic reputation: 98.5%
Employer reputation: 95.1%
Faculty/student ratio: 69.1%
Citations per faculty: 89.6%
International faculty ratio: 86%
International student ratio: 91.3%