How the score works

No single ranking agrees with the others — each optimizes for a different mix of reputation surveys, citation counts and research output. Analects Proverbs doesn't pick a winner between them; it normalizes and combines them, using a default weighting based on each ranking's real-world recognition. You can adjust those weights yourself on the rankings page.

QS World University Rankings

25% default weight

Weighs academic & employer reputation surveys heavily alongside faculty/student ratio and internationalization.

Publisher: Quacquarelli Symonds · 2024 edition

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

25% default weight

Balances teaching, research environment, citations, industry income and international outlook.

Publisher: Times Higher Education · 2024 edition

US News Best Colleges (National Universities)

15% default weight

The ranking most consulted by US high schoolers and parents: undergraduate experience, admit rate, class size, graduation rate. US institutions only.

Publisher: U.S. News & World Report · 2024 edition

US News Best Global Universities

15% default weight

Emphasizes global & regional research reputation, citations and international collaboration.

Publisher: U.S. News & World Report · 2023–24 edition

Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Ranking)

12% default weight

Research-output focused: Nobel laureates/Fields medalists, highly cited researchers, and papers in Nature & Science.

Publisher: ShanghaiRanking Consultancy · 2023 edition

Center for World University Rankings

8% default weight

Purely outcomes-based — no reputation surveys. Ranks on education quality, alumni employment, research and faculty citations.

Publisher: CWUR · 2024 edition

The formula

1. 1. Normalize. Each source's rank is converted to a 0–100 score relative to that source's total published pool, where rank 1 scores 100 and the bottom of the pool scores 0. Beyond roughly the top few hundred, publishers themselves report bands (e.g. "601–650") rather than exact positions — we score those using the band's midpoint, not an approximation of our own.
2. 2. Weight and combine. A university's aggregate score is the weighted average of its normalized scores from every source it appears in, using the weights above by default. Sources it isn't ranked in are simply excluded, not counted as zero — and its weight is redistributed proportionally among the sources that do rank it.
3. 3. Re-rank. All universities are sorted by aggregate score to produce the Analects Proverbs global rank.

This dataset is a curated snapshot of each publisher's most recent top-50 list, refreshed manually. It's intended as an illustrative aggregate, not an official ranking. The default weights reflect general public recognition of each ranking, not an endorsement of its rigor — which is exactly why they're adjustable.