Unfortunately, it seems that the National Research Council
2002 Decadal Survey,
which has recently been completed, neglects to provide a ranking of PhD programs
comparable to those provided in 1992 and 1982. Instead, a series of essays about
the challenges and opportunities offered by various sub-fields of physics have been
published adding to the similar essays that are periodically published in Physics
Today. As a consequence the physics community is left in the dark
relative to the current priorities of the field especially if one assumes that they
are changing somewhat relative to the priorities visible in the previous rankings.
Without the guidance provided by
the rankings, departments will presumably tend to drift, and will have
no way to determine whether or not their status in the physics community is rising
or falling.
In this situation, the best that can be done is to assume that the values
of the academic physics community have not changed in the past decade and to
rank the current physics departments relative to the values evident in the last
NRC ranking.
We have seen that the NRC perceived quality of Physics PhD programs based on the
period 1987-92
could be fit to within an average absolute discrepancy of 8.5% by a research profile
formula of the form
Q = 1.04 + .266 
Nsub
+ .205 Nother + .288 NNobel
+ .318 NNAS
where Nsub is the number of faculty in the various areas of
subatomic phyics (Nuclear/Particle physics plus related areas) and Nother
is the number of faculty in all other areas including astronomy.
The average discrepancy of 8.5% must be attributed to the quality of individual faculty
as well as historical and geographical prejudices as well as some intrinsic randomness
in the ratings.
Neglecting this relatively small discrepancy, it is interesting to ask what the
current quality ratings should be, based on the values reflected in the 1987-92 ratings
and on the current research profiles. To perform this exercise we have used the
AIP directory of physics faculties for the 1999 academic year and determined the
new perceived qualities using the above formula. The corresponding new rankings
are shown below. The departments with a listed old rank and quality of "0" are the
programs that were unrated in the NRC survey but are listed in the 1999 AIP
directory of physics PhD programs.
It could be that some of the larger discrepancies
between the "theoretical" quality given by the above formula and the actual NRC
perceived qualities at that time could be due to a time lag between
departmental changes in
research profile and perceived quality. In this case, now ten years after the
published ratings, the above formula could be an even more accurate predictor of
a department's standing than it was in 1992.
new rank new qual name old rank quality
1 5.527 MIT 3.5 4.870
2 5.149 UC-Berkeley 3.5 4.870
3 4.942 Princeton 2.0 4.890
4 4.798 Cal-Tech 5.0 4.810
5 4.722 Harvard 1.0 4.910
6 4.674 Illinois 8.0 4.660
7 4.609 Chicago 7.0 4.690
8 4.527 Stanford 9.0 4.530
9 4.484 Cornell 6.0 4.750
10 4.435 Columbia 12.0 4.250
11 4.421 Texas 11.0 4.330
12 4.154 UCLA 15.0 4.180
13 4.141 Michigan 19.0 3.960
14 3.904 Wisconsin 21.0 3.790
15 3.900 Maryland 18.0 4.020
16 3.811 Yale 13.0 4.210
17 3.804 Michigan State 32.0 3.430
18 3.800 Washington 14.0 4.200
19 3.786 Rutgers 20.0 3.820
20 3.701 Ohio State 24.0 3.750
21 3.700 Purdue 31.0 3.440
22 3.645 Stony Brook 22.5 3.760
23 3.619 Minnesota 22.5 3.760
24 3.604 Florida 36.0 3.350
25 3.600 Colorado 38.0 3.300
26 3.502 UC-Irvine 33.5 3.370
27 3.426 Florida State 42.5 3.250
28 3.391 Massachusetts 64.0 2.970
29 3.336 Brown 26.5 3.600
30 3.297 Iowa State 49.5 3.170
31 3.289 Boston U. 39.0 3.280
32 3.187 UCSD 16.0 4.100
33 3.185 Tennessee 72.0 2.830
34 3.171 Indiana 33.5 3.370
35 3.154 Pittsburgh 40.0 3.270
36 3.143 Texas A&M 47.5 3.220
37 3.131 Arizona 45.5 3.230
38 3.131 Notre Dame 56.0 3.060
39 3.042 Penn State 55.0 3.080
40 3.016 Carnegie Mellon 28.0 3.560
41 3.006 Delaware 74.0 2.760
42 2.996 NYU 53.5 3.140
43 2.989 Johns Hopkins 29.0 3.510
44 2.969 William & Mary 63.0 3.000
45 2.968 NC State 51.0 3.160
46 2.966 Pennsylvania 17.0 4.090
47 2.948 Rochester 26.5 3.600
48 2.947 Iowa 73.0 2.790
49 2.942 Virginia 45.5 3.230
50 2.941 UNC 53.5 3.140
51 2.941 UCSB 10.0 4.430
52 2.936 Arizona State 70.0 2.870
53 2.931 LSU 79.5 2.640
54 2.918 Illinois at Chicago 87.5 2.560
55 2.871 Kentucky 91.5 2.480
56 2.857 Case Western 65.0 2.960
57 2.818 New Hampshire 96.0 2.410
58 2.818 Northwestern 37.0 3.310
59 2.802 Washington U 52.0 3.150
60 2.800 Connecticut 101.5 2.330
61 2.795 Vanderbilt 58.0 3.040
62 2.794 Northeastern 66.0 2.910
63 2.784 UC-Davis 67.0 2.890
64 2.757 Oklahoma 95.0 2.420
65 2.757 Houston 61.5 3.020
66 2.753 New Mexico 0.0 0.000
67 2.753 Cincinnati 101.5 2.330
68 2.746 Southern Cal 49.5 3.170
69 2.740 Wayne State 0.0 0.000
70 2.740 Kansas 93.0 2.460
71 2.731 Mass-Lowell 125.0 1.920
72 2.730 CCNY 35.0 3.360
73 2.721 Syracuse 58.0 3.040
74 2.721 Duke Univ 42.5 3.250
75 2.713 South Carolina 85.5 2.580
76 2.712 Oregon 60.0 3.030
77 2.704 Ohio 83.5 2.600
78 2.704 Utah 58.0 3.040
79 2.686 Georgia 75.0 2.730
80 2.661 Rensselaer Poly 68.5 2.880
81 2.651 VPI 71.0 2.860
82 2.649 Brigham Young 110.0 2.210
83 2.642 Georgia Tech 61.5 3.020
84 2.634 Nebraska 79.5 2.640
85 2.634 Kansas State 101.5 2.330
86 2.617 Old Dominion 132.0 1.700
87 2.540 Alabama 120.0 2.080
88 2.540 Hawaii 82.0 2.610
89 2.532 UC-Riverside 68.5 2.880
90 2.520 Brandeis 42.5 3.250
91 2.489 Colorado State 104.5 2.300
92 2.486 Drexel 81.0 2.620
93 2.486 Rice 42.5 3.250
94 2.483 Auburn 128.0 1.880
95 2.475 Kent State 78.0 2.650
96 2.475 Brooklyn College 126.0 1.910
97 2.468 North Texas 104.5 2.300
98 2.456 UCSC 47.5 3.220
99 2.446 UT Dallas 91.5 2.480
100 2.444 Central Florida 0.0 0.000
101 2.432 SUNY-Buffalo 108.0 2.240
102 2.426 Florida International 0.0 0.000
103 2.411 George Washington 140.0 1.450
104 2.383 Tufts 77.0 2.660
105 2.377 U Texas, Arlington 117.0 2.110
106 2.373 U Alabama, Huntsville 113.5 2.130
107 2.361 New Mexico State 111.0 2.190
108 2.353 Hampton 0.0 0.000
109 2.349 Washington State 118.5 2.100
110 2.348 Utah State 0.0 0.000
111 2.348 Miami 122.0 2.030
112 2.348 Dartmouth 83.5 2.600
113 2.348 SUNY-Albany 85.5 2.580
114 2.348 Temple 94.0 2.430
115 2.343 Wisconsin-Milw 90.0 2.490
116 2.336 Oklahoma State 121.0 2.070
117 2.324 Lehigh 98.0 2.390
118 2.324 Michigan Tech 139.0 1.470
119 2.321 Montana State 106.0 2.270
120 2.317 Oregon State 76.0 2.690
121 2.314 Texas Tech. 118.5 2.100
122 2.313 Clemson Univ 0.0 0.000
123 2.289 New Jersey Tech 0.0 0.000
124 2.265 Missouri-Rolla 123.5 2.000
125 2.255 Western Michigan 0.0 0.000
126 2.255 Mississippi State 0.0 0.000
127 2.253 Illinois Tech 87.5 2.560
128 2.239 Rutgers-Newark 0.0 0.000
129 2.217 Mass-North Dartmouth 0.0 0.000
130 2.213 Howard 134.5 1.600
131 2.213 Arkansas 115.5 2.120
132 2.186 West Virginia 0.0 0.000
133 2.184 Col Sch of Mines 107.0 2.250
134 2.180 Rhode Island 129.0 1.850
135 2.179 Georgia State 0.0 0.000
136 2.179 U Alabama, Birmingham 127.0 1.900
137 2.169 Rockefeller 30.0 3.460
138 2.158 Air Force Tech 0.0 0.000
139 2.155 Tulane 115.5 2.120
140 2.155 Louisville 0.0 0.000
141 2.155 Emory 0.0 0.000
142 2.154 Denver 133.0 1.610
143 2.153 Mississippi 141.0 1.420
144 2.152 Boston College 131.0 1.800
145 2.129 Maryland-Baltimore Co 0.0 0.000
146 2.129 IUPUI 0.0 0.000
147 2.129 Alaska 89.0 2.500
148 2.096 Idaho 0.0 0.000
149 2.048 Nevada-Las Vegas 0.0 0.000
150 2.048 Maine 112.0 2.180
151 2.034 Wake Forest 0.0 0.000
152 2.027 Toledo 0.0 0.000
153 2.021 Stevens Tech 109.0 2.230
154 2.019 East Carolina 0.0 0.000
155 2.019 Wyoming 0.0 0.000
156 2.006 Catholic 101.5 2.330
157 1.989 New Mexico Tech. 136.0 1.570
158 1.989 Missouri-Kansas City 0.0 0.000
159 1.983 Missouri-Columbia 99.0 2.380
160 1.962 Queens College 0.0 0.000
161 1.962 Baylor 145.0 1.130
162 1.958 Florida Atlantic Univ. 0.0 0.000
163 1.958 Missouri-St. Louis 0.0 0.000
164 1.958 Nevada-Reno 142.0 1.310
165 1.914 Clark 130.0 1.820
166 1.899 Southern Meth 0.0 0.000
167 1.852 Wesleyan 0.0 0.000
168 1.811 Worcester Poly 137.5 1.480
169 1.783 Alabama A&M 0.0 0.000
170 1.692 Florida Inst. of Tech 147.0 0.460
171 1.659 Clarkson 113.5 2.130
172 1.659 North Dakota 0.0 0.000
173 1.623 Portland State 0.0 0.000
174 1.586 Texas Christian 146.0 0.670
175 1.454 Bryn Mawr College 137.5 1.480
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