The UW has made it to the sweet 16 of collegiate rankings.

At the last Board of Regents meeting, UW President Mark Emmert announced that the UW had been ranked 16th in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Global 500 rankings. It was ranked third in the areas of pharmacy, medicine and biomedical research.

“I think it’s neat because we’re on the cutting edge of technology,” said UW staff member Regina Hall.

Philip Ballinger, director of admissions at the UW, admits the rankings are exceptional but cautions people to look at these rankings with a grain of salt. Depending on who the source is, the ranking methodology varies, thus different outcomes.

“You can find a zillion rankings that all come up with vastly different results,” he said.

In a ranking done by Smart Money magazine, the UW made it to the elite eight, ranking fifth. The Washington Monthly rankings had the UW at 15th, while Seattle Metropolitan magazine ranked the UW eighth in the Northwest after Whitman College, Reed College and University of Portland.

“The Shanghai Jiao Tong Global 500 rankings depend very much on research outcomes, and contributions to the creation of new knowledge,” Ballinger said. “It is not concerned with many of the same items that U.S. News and World Report uses.”

The Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings use criteria including research funding levels received, faculty publications in the most prestigious journals and honors received by faculty such as Nobel Prizes and Academy of Science memberships.

Since 1974 the UW has been the largest beneficiary of federal research funding and second among private and public universities in the nation. The college’s research budget constantly ranks in the top five in public and private universities in the country. Much of this funding has come from peer-reviewed research proposals.

Ballinger states that other entities reveal these rankings in order to entertain, advertise and sell products; in short, to make money.

“Now, the data, if any, that they contain may be useful, but the rankings are not very useful,” he said. “Therefore, we do not stress them much.”

Princeton Review ranks schools in categories such as “Reefer Madness” and “Nobody Plays Intramural Sports.”

“Princeton Review has a large student opinion component that the other two don’t have, more of a ‘what students think’ approach, less data driven,” Ballinger said.

Senior A.J. Smith, a first-generation college student who chose the UW because he considered it the best college in the area, says that prestige means a lot, and not only related to which school is being ranked but also in who is doing the ranking.

“Since Princeton has that historic prestige, it’s going to have reliable rankings,” he said. “If it’s a source not known for accuracy, it’s not going to be taken seriously.”

He noted that Ivy League schools would always attract students, regardless of how low they might fare in rankings. Many students look at the rankings of specific programs as a measuring stick for where they want to spend their undergraduate and graduate careers.

“If you want to specialize in a certain field and that school has a really high-ranked program, that is going to influence your choices,” Smith said.

While there are more prominent aspects that students and parents look at when choosing a school, rankings can be seen as a face value barometer.

Senior Beatrice Womack, who didn’t consider rankings when she applied to the UW, says prime factors in choosing a school are costs, location and academic reputation of the school.

“It would play a larger role for out-of-state students but not as much for in-state students, but it’s an easy way to summarize the qualities of the school like attendance rate and drop out rate,” she said.

Quoc Nguyen, an engineer for Seattle City Light and a UW alumnus, would concur. He suggested that when looking at résumés, employers scan the sheet and if a name brand institution pops up, they take interest.

“Rankings are good if you’re within the top 20 schools in the world. You could’ve been number one, you don’t have to tell people,” Hall said.

Rankings also play a factor when students and parents look at schools.

“With my admissions process ... [my] parents were sitting down and looking at rankings,” said senior Khajidt Reinhardt.

Reinhardt said that it’s the more affluent communities who are concerned with rankings and prestige.

Victor Flores, director of the UW Ethnic Cultural Center, says minorities are simply trying to get into college.

“When I was looking at colleges, I never looked at rankings, but nowadays a good proportion of students and parents do look at schools that way,” Flores said. “In the age and culture we live with, it’s easier to follow rankings of sports than rankings of colleges and programs. Media and programs sensationalize rankings. Look at the bowl games.”

The significance of a school’s rankings is in the eye of the beholder, and it shows that those outside the school are paying attention to us. Being 16th earns the UW a pat on the back with incentive to continue improving.

Reach reporter Julian Estrada at features@dailyuw.com.