Harvard tops Columbia in media ranking

AUSTIN, Texas, April 9 (UPI) -- Harvard topped Columbia as the top U.S. university in a ranking based on how often the schools appeared in the global media, a research company said Thursday.

The University of Chicago ranked No. 3, followed by the University of Michigan and Stanford University, Global Language Monitor said.

The University of Wisconsin ranked No. 6, followed by Cornell, Princeton, Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, the Austin, Texas, company said.

Taken as a whole, the University of California system would have outdistanced Harvard for the top spot by a wide margin, company President Paul Payack told United Press International.

In the liberal arts college category, Colorado College in Colorado Springs and Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., ranked Nos. 1 and 2, followed by Massachusetts' Amherst and Wellesley and Ohio's Oberlin, GLM said.

Rounding out the top 10 were Vermont's Middlebury College, Virginia's University of Richmond and New York's Union, Vassar and Bard colleges.

The semiannual ranking, which includes the Internet as well as traditional media, is "like brand analysis," Payack told UPI.

The group plans to expand the rankings to colleges and universities, including graduate schools, outside the United States, he said.

The company earlier predicted the English language would adopt its 1 millionth word by late April or early May.