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

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

Comments

[Moderation4ever]

Happy to see my alma mater on the list. On Wisconsin, go Badgers.

[Frank Drackman]

They should go, maybe to the Ivy League.

[Nelson]

[Poxigah146]

I have degrees from three of those.

[Frank Drackman]

I'll give you a Multiple Guess Quiz on how many people care
1: Jesus (and only because he's sort of required to)
2: Your Mom (and only to humor you)
3: Nobody
4: Joe Shit, the Ragman
and in Med Screw-el, they broke it down even more, so answer
"A" if 1,2, and 3 are true
"B" if 1 and 3 are true
"C" if 2 and 4 are true
"D" if only 4 is true,
"E" if all are true

So sad that I remember that system some 37 years after my last test.

Frank

[Roger S]

Also an alumnus of three of them.

[Frank Drackman]

An Alumnus? Might want to have a Doctor look at that

[Frank Drackman]

Ironically, only one of those Screw-el's Grad-jew-ma-cated someone who walked on the Moon, which of course, is
Hah-vud,
and surprising Ted Kennedy wasn't considered for Astronaut, he'd have been great in the "Splashdown" phase (OK, maybe not so great)
Harrison Schmitt, the one Moonwalker who wasn't originally a Military Pilot, but a Geologist, got his PhD (Shit Piled higher) in Duh, Geology,from Hah-vud
Schmitt was the "Lunar Module Pilot" and in typical NASA-ese, the "Lunar Module Pilot" wasn't the one who landed the Lunar Module, it was the Mission Commander,
Harrison's the hmm, how do I put this,
"Living Person who most recently walked on the moon"
December 1972, Apollo 17, Mission Commander Gene Cernan was the last human to walk on the moon.
But like Mistah Kurtz in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"
"He dead"
Oh wait, my bad,
Pete Conrad, Apollo 12, Princeton.
That was the mission where they pointed the TV camera at the sun 20 minutes into the first moonwalk, burned out the lens, bye bye TV.
Figures

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

I doubt they burned out the glass lens -- my guess is the photosensors behind it.

And I'm actually surprised that happened because they'd been photographing atomic bombs, which have a far brighter initial flash, although that may have been film rather than TV.

[Bunny495]

"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."

I never put much stock in ranking universities instead relying on individual departments. FSU is an example of what I will call a mid-tier university that has a top tier metrology department and Tiruvalam Natarajan Krishnamurti was widely described as knowing more about hurricanes than God. While both FSU and UF have Urban Planning departments (and truth be told UF in general is a better university) FSU was instrumental in developing the widely used transportation model. UF on the other hand screwed the pooch when using the model when they tweaked the traffic light parameters so there were green lights in all directions. This worked in computer simulation and the level of service was great since traffic accidents were not included in the model. Problem is that in real life if traffic lights were green in all directions there would be traffic lights. No question FSU law school being located in the state capitol benefits from work/study programs and internships with the power brokers in state government.

Bottom line is smart peeps choose the university to attend based on which department they will be studying in. Shout out to Tiruvalam Natarajan Krishnamurti

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._N._Krishnamurti

[y81]

Most 18 year olds haven't the foggiest idea what they want to do with their lives (me, I still don't know at 67). Choose the best university you can get into and explore; don't close off your options while you're still a teenager.

[neurodoc]

Most such lists would include two schools not on this one, and up at the top, those being MIT and Stanford. Maybe both of them overtook and outdistanced the others in the wake of WWII, especially in STEM fields, that is if they were not already there.

[Don Nico]

removed

[Zarniwoop]

I noted the lack of MIT as well, but heck 1) times change and 2) personal bias. Stanford was also younger in 1935 than now. Time ain’t static.

[Frank Drackman]

2 Moonwalkers were MIT grads as well as the “Car Talk” Guys (Leave it to National Pubic Radio to make even a Car show Political) as was Good Will Hunting (how ya like dem Apples?)

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

The MIT Rad Lab wasn't established until 1940 -- it got the British Magnetron and did all the RADAR and microwave stuff, including the first LORANS navigation system. I suspect that they were also involved in the super-secret SONAR work, which remain quite classified after the war.

Boston was a major USN port at the time -- not just the Charlestown Navy Yard or multiple adjacent shipyards (Quincy, Fall River, Hingham, etc) but also where a lot of stuff was loaded onto ships that went from Boston to Halifax (NS) and then to Europe.

MIT also did a lot of special engineering training. It wasn't like today with Marine Diesel engines -- every one of the Victory Ships and USN Ships had a steam boiler that required engineers to run 24/7 -- and these engineers then went on to do stuff post-war and where do you think they hired *their* young engineers from?

[Dr. Ed 2]

I suspect that Stanford was a different story -- in the early 20th Century it was a major Railroad Engineering school (remember what it's founder, Leland Stanford, had been involved in).

By 1935, the railroads had started to die -- all the track in this country (and the bridges built) before WWI when Wilson had confiscated the railroads. The railroads were coasting along after the stock market crash -- not a lot of business, but not a lot of expenses. And then they wore everything out during WWII without putting any money back in and that led to the later implosion.

But railroad engineering wasn't a field for young men in 1935.

[Vryedni]

Cal Tech. Princeton.

[santamonica811]

Count me among those who immediately thought, "Hmmm...the list has Minn & Wisc, but doesn't have Stanford or UVA???"

Color me skeptical, at the very least. (At least it's not something important, like who's the best ever left-handed pitcher, or the best overall player in NBA history.)

[Armchair]

It's a list from 1935.

Stanford only had its first students in in 1891. It didn't have a law school that was ABA until 1923. From wikipedia "Wallace Sterling was the President from 1949 to 1968 and he oversaw the growth of Stanford from a financially troubled regional university to a financially sound, internationally recognized academic powerhouse,"

UVA...well....segregation was still in force in 1935

[Longtobefree]

UVA joke:
How many UVA students does it take to change a tire?
Two. One holds both drinks while the other calls daddy's mechanic to come change the tire.
VMI joke:
How many VMI students does it take to change a tire?
Three. One changes the tire while the other two talk about how much better the old tire was.
VPI joke:
How many VPI students does it take to change a tire?
One. And he does it in less than 30 minutes he gets 3 hours credit for automotive engineering.

[Dr. Ed 2]

UVA is not a research university.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

The five professors and/or researchers who won Nobel Prizes for their research there might beg to differ.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Research 1. I was wrong.

[santamonica811]

Armchair,
Really sloppy reading on my part. Um, that does change things, obviously. Thanks for catching that. 🙂

[ah....Clem]

I've always thought of these college academic rankings as being exactly like the rankings of college football teams, but without the teams ever actually playing any games against one another to settle the matter.

i.e. entirely speculative and only useful to the extent that other people think that it is useful.

That said, having an advanced degree from a top ten University does have it's advantages - It allows me to get a latte at any Starbucks for only seven dollars.

[y81]

Having a degree (advanced or undergraduate) from a fancy university often impresses yuppie girls. Did you have some other goal in life? What about when you were 18 and making these decisions?

[Dr. Ed 2]

The original (1900) AAU membership list:
Harvard University,
Columbia University,
Johns Hopkins University,
University of Chicago,
University of California
Clark University
Catholic University of America,
Cornell University,
University of Michigan
Princeton University,
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University,
University of Wisconsin,
Yale University

[Armchair]

For fun, who has fallen the most from this list...

Columbia at #15
Michigan has fallen to #20.
Wisconsin at #36
Minnesota at #59...tied with Stony Brook and Santa Clara. Quite the drop.

[Dr. Ed 2]

1935 was the peak of Agriculture science research for the small family farm.

All four of those are in what were then farm states, including NY.
Dairy science alone -- UMass used to teach kids how to make ice cream on the small dairy level -- those are all now gone.