The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

Top 11 Universities in the U.S. (1935)

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From the Atlantic in 1935, by Edwin Embree (see also yesterday's Atlantic Time-Travel Thursdays (Jake Lundberg) item yesterday discussing this):

How does one go about appraising the scholarly eminence of universities? In the first place, one may take the lists of the most distinguished scientists as published in American Men of Science and in somewhat similar records for the other branches of learning and tabulate the centres of concentration of these most eminent scholars. Second, since creative scholarship finds expression ultimately in publication, it is possible through the scientific journals to appraise the scholarly output of the several university faculties. The third and probably the soundest method is to rely on appraisals of the relative eminence of the several departments of universities made by competent scholars in each field. [More details omitted. -EV] …

While I have based my ratings on authoritative findings, most of which are matters of published record, I must in the end assume personal responsibility for the judgments. With all these considerations and reservations in mind, here is my rating of American universities in the order of their scholarly eminence: —

1. Harvard
2. Chicago
3. Columbia
4. California
5. Yale
6. Michigan
7. Cornell
8. Princeton
9. Johns Hopkins
10. Wisconsin
11. Minnesota