Senior Associate Director of admissions Mike Cook said MSU’s ranking is only one thing potential students might look for in a university. This year, MSU welcomed the largest incoming freshman class in its history and also brought in a record number of international students.
“(That is) a really debatable question,” he said.

“Those rankings are just one aspect of a tool you can use to help you select an institution. Picking a school means a lot of things.”

The rankings — compiled in part by news service Thomson Reuters — measure an institution based on a weighted system that factors in teaching, research, faculty publications, innovation and a university’s international outlook.

The organization surveyed more than 17,000 academics in more than 130 countries and looked at thousands of published works by university professionals across the world to compile a score out of 100.

MSU scored 54.4 using the publication’s methodology, which awards 30 percent of its ranking to teaching and 30 percent to research volume and reputation. The other 40 percent is composed of research influence, international outreach and innovation.

“No project that seeks to reduce the amazing variety of university activity into a single ranked list can ever be perfect, but Times Higher Education can make bullish claims for the sophistication and utility of its annual World University Rankings,” said Phil Baty, the publication’s deputy editor, on its website.

In the rest of the Big Ten, the University of Michigan ranked 18th, behind Yale University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison were ranked 26th and 27th, respectively.

The University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, Penn State University and Ohio State University also beat MSU in the rankings.

The California Institute of Technology topped the list, knocking Harvard out of the No. 1 spot for the first time in eight years.

MSU ranked 86th in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities, another measure of international academic performance.

On its official website, MSU makes note of its stature as a top 100 research university in the world, but some students haven’t paid much attention to that accomplishment.

Preveterinary freshman Kaitlin Justice said she only examined MSU’s ranking in her individual program when applying to the university and did not consider MSU’s international standing.

“It was just one of those known things,” she said.

“They have a really good (veterinary medicine program).”

Justice said she thinks a strong global position still could draw some additional students to the university.

“I think it probably does (make a difference) if they’re a pretty well-known international school,” she said.