University Reputation Ranking 2016: Does An Institute's Stature Affect Student's Overall Experience?

Apparently the university's reputation is one of the decisive factors when it comes to students across the globe seeking to join an institute.

Choosing what college to enrol in, is no doubt, a life changing decision as the choice may have a significant impact on a student's future. That being established, an institution's reputation is very crucial in making that decision.

But how much weight does an university's reputation actually carry while selecting a college to attend.

Students from renowned universities in China, Japan, U.S., and Canada finally opened up about the impact that their institutes' reputation has on their overall experience, apace with THE 2016 World Reputation Ranking that was unveiled on May 4 this year.

No prizes for guessing, United States monopolises the top of the ranking with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University grabbing the top three spots.

Asian institutes are not lagging either with two of them making it into the top 20. Japan-based, University of Tokyo took the 12th place and China's Tsinghua University took the 18th place.

According to Lei Ann Watanuki, a US-based student studying in English at the University of Tokyo, his decision to join the UTokyo was highly-influenced by the institute's stature; besides Watanuki wanted to experience college life in a different environment from his suburban home town in the United States, TimesHigherEducation reported.

Although Watanuki has completed just one semester, he already is impressed with the high standards of his peers and professors, especially in mathematics. Several Japanese Nobel laureates are associated with University of Tokyo, which according to Watanuki has a positive effect on the university.

Spearheaded by World Report and U.S. News for quite a long time, a slew of news agencies and other organisations have ranked US-based institutions of higher learning. That being said, rankings do matter, if only because high school students base their decision about where to apply on these rankings, Study reported.

Remarkably, the universities placed in the top six positions in the ranking, achieve higher scores as compared to those ranked directly below them. This also show that reputation of a select group of top-notch universities for being the best in the world is notably extensive.

Shivani Radhakrishnan, a PhD student who initially attended the Princeton University and the University of Oxford and is currently attending the Columbia University, showed utter shock upon realising that Oxford score considerably higher in the survey as compared to Princeton as well as Columbia.

Radhakrishnan recommends that the budding tech industry and advancement in Silicon Valley add to the recognised merit of University of California, Berkeley and MIT compared with Yale University, Princeton and Columbia University, which despite being highly ranked, does not garner high reputation scores.