Top Ranking U.S. Cities To Live

Posted by admin | Posted on 30-07-2010

Category : Region III

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Top Ranking U.S. Cities To Live

A list of cities and towns that are the best places to live in U.S. has been put together by http://Relocate-America.com, based on the nominations of its customers. Relocate America offers relocation resources and information to people who are relocating to a new community. The top 100 places to live are compiled annually and are selected based on key data on neighborhood details, its beauty, education, recreational activities and economic growth, crime and housing. With the statistics and feedback provided by people based on their experience in these communities, the editorial team has rated the top 100 best places to live. Of these, the following are the top 10 U.S. towns people want to live.

1. Asheville, North Carolina: Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains at the merging of two rivers, Asheville is an ideal getaway with its vibrant downtown and great outdoor recreational activities. Asheville offers homes that range from the lower 120s to over a million. The average home is priced at 5,000 and Asheville has a population of 68,889.

2. Traverse City, Michigan: With over 180 miles of lovely shoreline and about 150 deep blue lakes, Traverse City is a real paradise. Come winter, and one can enjoy a variety of outdoor sports including sleigh rides, skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling. The city is noted for its vineyards and its wines, and has a thriving wine industry. The population is 16,000.

3. Ithaca, New York: Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is known for its picture-perfect surroundings. It is home to Ithaca College and Cornell University. The town is great for young families with children. There are a good number of schools that are part of the Ithaca City School District. The town has 29,300 residents.

4. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago is not unfamiliar to many. Located on Lake Michigan, the city offers a host of recreation, great education and a great nightlife among others. The city’s unique community spirit, sophisticated urban living and multi-cultural heritage attract several visitors to it every year. The big city has a population that is close to 3 million.

5. Cary, North Carolina. Cary is located in the Triangle area of N.C., which often featured among the country’s best places. A thriving community that enjoys close proximity to major educational institutions, Cary has one of the highest median household incomes. The sense of security here is high with the town ranked 10th among the 369 large cities in the U.S. It is also the safest city in the South. The technology town houses several international business firms and offers great job opportunities. Cary has a population of 94,536.

6. Portland, Maine: A modern city and the backbone of Maine’s economy, Portland is one of the safest cities in the country. The waterfront city offers affordable housing, great business environment, low unemployment rate, outstanding schools and loads of amenities. A friendly city, Portland has a vibrant arts district and offers a wonderful lifestyle. There are approximately 64,000 residents living here.

7. San Francisco, California: One of the top locations in the U.S. and a city that is famous for its wonderful landmarks, San Francisco offers a whole host of attractions, an ideal climate, picturesque beauty and a rich culture. Although the cost of living is higher, it is amply compensated by the wages and salaries which are among the highest in the nation. The city has excellent transportation systems, plentiful jobs, some of the famous educational institutions in the U.S. and a great lifestyle. San Francisco has 739,246 residents approximately.

8. Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Stevens Point is located in the center of the state, along the Wisconsin River in a scenic setting. Miles of cross country ski trails, hiking and biking trails, and golf courses cover the city’s beautiful landscape. The city is family friendly, offers quality education and has two university campuses and several schools. The historic downtown adds charm to this city that is home to about 25,000 people. Homes are affordable and maintenance costs are low.

9. O’Fallon, Missouri: A fast developing community with a population of 67,009, O’Fallon has a small-town feel. The town is well connected and is dubbed ‘the crossroads of the nation’. This town offers beautiful surroundings, affordable housing, and a good education scenario. The city is also home to several sports teams including football, basketball and hockey leagues.

10. Spencer, Iowa: Rounding out the top 10 is Spencer, a beautiful town that is loaded with numerous picturesque lakes, wooded shorelines and rolling farmlands. The city of Spencer is just 20 miles from the Great Lakes region and offers year-round fun. The biking and skiing trails provide abundant recreation opportunities as do the beautiful campgrounds and fishing zones. A thriving economy, a low cost of living, excellent health care and a safe environment, along with affordable homes makes Spencer a sought-after city and a preferred vacation destination. The population of the town is 11,317 approximately.

Bias in Times Higher Education Ranking of the World’s Top Universities

Posted by admin | Posted on 20-07-2010

Category : Region V

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Bias in Times Higher Education Ranking of the World’s Top Universities

The Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds (THE-QS) have just published the 2009 ranking of the World’s top universities .We compared the ranking of the World’s Top-25 Universities according to THE-QS with the 2008 Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU.

Overall ranking: THE-QS 2009 versus ARWU 2008
The overall overlap of the two rankings is 72%, with 18 of the World’s Top-25 universities appearing in both the THE-QS and ARWU rankings. This means there are seven universities (more than one in four) that do not appear in each of the other lists.

THE-QS has many more British Universities than ARWU
There are twice as many British universities in the THE-QS ranking of the World’s Top-25 universities than in the ARWU. THE-QS finds that six (24%) of the World’s Top-25 universities are British compared to three (8%) for ARWU.

The difference is particularly striking for the World’s Top-5 universities, where there are four British Universities in the THE-QS (University of Cambridge [2nd], University College London [4th], Imperial College London [5th] and University of Oxford [5th]) compared to only one for the ARWU (University of Cambridge [3rd]).

THE-QS has many fewer public US universities than ARWU
There is only one public US university University of Michigan in the THE-QS ranking compared to six public US universities in the ARWU ranking. The University of California is represented four times in the ARWU ranking (Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco) and not once in the THE-QS ranking.

THE-QS is more international than ARWU
The THE-QS ranking of the World’s Top-25 universities includes more non-US universities than the ARWU ranking: 12 (48%) universities are non-US in THE-QS compared to 7 (28%) in the ARWU. In the THE-QS ranking, six countries are represented: US (13), UK (6), Japan (2), Australia (1), Canada (1), Switzerland (1) and Hong Kong (1). In the ARWU five countries are represented: US (18), UK (3), Japan (2), Switzerland (1) and Canada (1).

Stanford University
It is very striking to see that Stanford University is ranked 2nd in the world according to ARWU and only 16th according to THE-QS.

University of California – Berkeley
It is also striking to see that the University of California – Berkeley is ranked 3rd in the world according to ARWU and 36th according to THE-QS.

University College – London
Finally,University College – London is ranked 4th in the world according to THE-QS compared to only 22nd in the world according to ARWU.

Conclusions
The AllAboutUni.com assessment highlights a number of important differences between the two major rankings of the World’s Top-25 universities. THE-QS, which is a British publication, is a more international ranking but it appears to have a bias for British universities and a bias against public US universities. In addition, two highly ranked universities in ARWU – Stanford (ranked 2nd) and Berkeley (ranked 3rd) – are ranked significantly lower by THE-QS.

University Ranking – Top Online Universities in the World

Posted by admin | Posted on 17-05-2009

Category : Region IV

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University Ranking – Top Online Universities in the World

Want to study for an online degree program? There are many online universities and colleges offering high quality education online.

 

Online Degree Programs:

 

Online degree programs offer many advantages such as flexibility and cost savings. Learning can take place at anywhere in the world, individual student can choose where, when and how to study.

 

Online programs are offered at different levels ranging from Certificate program, Diploma program, Associate degree, Bachelor degree, Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, Master degree to Doctorate degree. Subject areas include business, psychology, nursing, education, sociology, information technology and so on.

 

Top 10 Online Universities:

 

According to “The Best and Worst Online Degree Programs” 2007, the top ten online universities in the world are as follows:

 

(1) The University of London (UoL)

(2) The University of South Africa

(3) The University of Phoenix

(4) The University of Texas

(5) University of South Australia (UniSA)

(6) University of Southern Queensland (USQ)

(7) The University of Maryland University College

(8) Golden Gate University

(9) Ellis College of NYIT

(10) Stanford University

 

The University of London is ranked number one in the world for its outstanding online degree programs. It offers more than 100 online and distance qualifications through the University of London External Programme. Students studying through the External Programme are examined to the same standard as full-time on-campus students.

 

The University of South Australia is the leading provider of distance education in Australia. With more than 32000 on campus and offshore students, it is now the largest university in South Australia.

 

Prospective students are advised to check the accreditation and reputation of online universities and colleges before enrolling into a program of study.

 

Please refer to the relevant guides for more information on the latest university ranking and world university ranking.

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The Academic Ranking of World’s Universities

Posted by admin | Posted on 13-02-2009

Category : Region IV

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The Academic Ranking of World’s Universities

An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni reveals that California has a relatively low density of the World’s Top-500 universities compared to industrialised countries in the world. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and interactive website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include highly cited researchers, articles indexed in major citation indices and staff winning Nobel Prizes.

The World’s Top-500 universities (2008) are mainly located in Europe (n=210; 40%), the Americas (n=190; 40%) and the Asian/Pacific region (n=100; 20%). There are 159 (32%) universities located in the United States (US), of which 13 are located in California (click here).

California has a population of 37 million inhabitants, making it the most populated State in the US. It makes a very important contribution to the US economy and taken alone it has the world’s eighth largest economy in the world (in terms of Gross Domestic Product).

There are both public and private universities in California. The public universities are organized as follows: the University of California (UC) universities (10 campuses e.g. UC – Berkeley and UC – Los Angeles) which has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, the California State Universities (CSU) which has over 400,000 students and the California Community Colleges system which provides lower division courses and has a student population of over 2.9 million.

The thirteen universities located in California that are in the World’s Top-500 universities are distributed as follows: nine UC universities (Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis, Riverside and Santa Cruz), three private universities (Stanford, California Institute of Technology, University of Southern California) and one CSU university (San Diego State University).

An earlier assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com found that 36% (n=57) – more than one in three – of the US universities in the World’s Top-500 are located in just five States: New York (15), California (13), Texas (13), Massachusetts (9) and Pennsylvania (7) (click here). The assessment also found that the universities are not evenly distributed, with California having a higher representation at the top of the list: in the World’s Top-25 universities, the distribution is California (6), New York (2), Massachusetts (2), and Pennsylvania (1) and Texas (0).

The six Californian universities in the World’s Top-25 universities are: Stanford (ranked 2nd), UC – Berkeley (3rd), California Institute of Technology (6th), UC – Los Angeles (13th), UC – San Diego (14th) and UC – San Francisco (18th).

In order to make inter-country comparisons, AllAboutUni.com calculates the number of universities in the World’s Top-500 per million inhabitants. The overall number of universities per million inhabitants is 0.5 for industrialised countries. An earlier assessment found that small countries in Western Europe (Sweden (1.2), Finland (1.1) and Switzerland (1.0) and New Zealand (1.2) has the highest number of universities per million inhabitants.

The number of universities in the World’s Top-500 universities that are located in California is 0.4 per million inhabitants. Large industrialized countries have the following figures: Australia (0.7), the Netherlands (0.7), United Kingdom (0.7), Canada (0.6), United States (0.5), Germany (0.5), France (0.4), Italy (0.4), Spain (0.2) and Japan (0.2).

In conclusion, despite California having some of the best universities in the world (e.g. Stanford, UC – Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology), the overall density of the World’s Top-500 universities is relatively low compared to industrialised countries in the world.

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Top Ranking Universities Offer Online Degree Programs

Posted by admin | Posted on 18-01-2009

Category : Region III

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Top Ranking Universities Offer Online Degree Programs

With the growing demand for more flexible educational opportunities, more schools are beginning to offer quality online degree programs, including some of the nation’s top ranking universities who are offering certification programs and undergraduate degrees as well as graduate programs- all online.

Perhaps one of the best examples of the quality you can expect from online degree programs it the University of Florida. Located in Gainesville, Florida, the University of Florida has consistently ranked among the U.S. News and World Report’s list of top schools. And the pharmacy school at the University of Florida is currently ranked number 11 out of only sixty-two schools in the nation to obtain an accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and is the highest ranked school to offer a Doctor of Pharmacy degree online. The online degree program in pharmacy is also the largest of it’s kind boasting over one thousand alumni.

But the University of Florida is not the only one to gain national attention for the quality of its online program offerings. The University of Cincinnati has been ranked as the #3 top ranked criminology school in the nation, and it is the only one of its kind to offer a Master of Science in Criminal Justice online. The program has some of the most visible faculty in the field of criminal justice available. And according to a study conducted by the Journal of Criminal Justice, The University of Cincinnati was ranked number one in the nation for most published faculty. They have also ranked in Money Magazine’s top 100 for educational value.

Eastern Kentucky University is also among the distance education providers to boasting rights when it comes to offering top notch programs. Having one of the top undergraduate programs in Fire and Safety Engineering Technology in the nation, Eastern Kentucky University has been dedicated to lifelong learning since 1906.

The University of Saint Mary, who has been offering online education for over a decade, is also among the top ranking academic providers. The University of Saint Mary the only school in the region to be named a “Best Value College” by the Princeton Review which also listed the University of Saint Mary as “Best Midwestern College” for the past three years in a row. The dedication to serving students and offering them a quality educational experience is evident in the online degree programs offered by the University of Saint Mary.

If these universities are any indication, we can expert to see the trend in online education continue to grow, offering students an ever growing pool or degree opportunities. And as more and more people become familiar with the online classroom format, more universities are bound to jump on board and expand their offerings as well. So no matter what degree or program you are looking for, odds are you will find a national recognized program from a well established university so that you can feel good about the degree you have worked so hard to earn.

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