2 Md. universities ranked among top 50 schools in the world

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen schools in Maryland, Virginia and the District have earned spots on a new list of the best universities in the world, based on how frequently their academic research is cited and the strength of their academic reputations.

The Best Global Universities rankings, released Tuesday by U.S. News and World Report, includes 1,250 universities in 74 countries. The schools were evaluated in 22 different subject areas, including the arts and humanities, medicine, computer science and social science.

**No. 10.** **Johns Hopkins University** — Baltimore, Maryland *Johns Hopkins University ranked No. 10 in the “Best Global Universities” list from U.S. News and World Report.* (Courtesy Johns Hopkins University)

No. 9. Princeton University — Princeton, New Jersey In this Dec. 3, 2015 file photo shows the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

AP Photo/Mel Evans, File

No. 8. Columbia University — New York City In this Wednesday, May 17, 2017, file photo, graduating students fill the Columbia University campus during a graduation ceremony in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

**No. 7. University of Cambridge** — Cambridge, U.K. Spectators gather near Hammersmith Bridge prior to The Cancer Research UK Boat Race on April 2, 2017 in London, England. The 163rd annual Cancer Research Boat Races are held today which see crews from the Oxford and Cambridge Universities compete on a four mile course along the Thames. (Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)

Students cheer air and ground robots designed and created by teams of mechanical engineering students as they battle at the 29th Annual Engineering Design competition, themed "Raiders of the Lost Can," at the at California Institute of Technology, Caltech's Brown Gym in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) — **No. 6. California Institute of Technology** — Pasadena Students cheer air and ground robots designed and created by teams of mechanical engineering students as they battle at the 29th Annual Engineering Design competition, themed “Raiders of the Lost Can,” at the at California Institute of Technology, Caltech’s Brown Gym in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

In this Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017 photo, people walk around Oxford University's campus in Oxford, England. The number of EU applicants to British universities fell this year for the first time since 2012, as EU nationals remain uncertain of what their rights will be in post-Brexit Britain. (AP Photo/Caroline Spiezio) — **No. 5. University of Oxford** — Oxford, U.K. In this Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017 photo, people walk around Oxford University’s campus in Oxford, England. The number of EU applicants to British universities fell this year for the first time since 2012, as EU nationals remain uncertain of what their rights will be in post-Brexit Britain. (AP Photo/Caroline Spiezio)

No. 3. Stanford University — Stanford, California In this April 21, 2017, file photo, students walk past Sather Gate on the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif. With college classes starting soon, ideally you’ve made all your payments and are ready to settle in. But if you’re still looking for financial aid to help cover your tuition, you’ll have to move fast. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

AP Photo/Ben Margot, File

The "Great Dome" atop of building 10 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.,Monday, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) — **No. 2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology** — Cambridge, Massachusetts *The “Great Dome” atop of building 10 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.,Monday, April 3, 2017.* (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

No. 1. Harvard University — Cambridge, Massachusetts In this Aug. 30, 2012, file photo, a tour group walks through the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Word of an August 2017 Justice Department inquiry into how race factors into admissions at Harvard University has left top-tier colleges bracing for scrutiny of practices that have boosted diversity levels to new highs. While they keep their selection formulas under wraps, Ivy League colleges defend race-conscious approaches that contributed to a 17 percent increase in nonwhite students over a recent five-year span. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File

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Two Maryland schools ranked in the top 50. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore came in at No. 10 on the list, and the University of Maryland at College Park was ranked No. 50. Johns Hopkins’ top 10 finish was a result, in part, of the medical school’s strong research performance. Both schools claim a number of academic papers that were among the top 1 percent most-cited in different fields.

The U.S. leads the global rankings with 221 schools on the list, including four of the top five. China came in second with 136 universities in the rankings. Harvard was the No. 1 ranked school in the world, followed by MIT, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Oxford in the U.K.

The global rankings, which U.S. News has published for the past four years, differ from the “Best Colleges” rankings published annually that only evaluate U.S. schools based on factors such as students’ academic performance and graduation rates.

The global rankings focus on schools’ research output, including how frequently research generated at the ranked school is cited in books, academic papers, books, scholarly journals and at conferences.

The focus on research makes it easier to make apples-to-apples comparisons between schools in the U.S. and around the world, says Anita Narayan, managing editor at U.S. News.

“As higher ed has really become much more global, institutions around the world and in the U.S. are really competing for the best students from around the world,” Narayan said.

Other schools in the wider D.C. area that earned spots in the rankings:

The University of Virginia (No. 107)
University of Maryland Baltimore (No. 203)
Virginia Tech (No. 250)
George Washington University (No. 260)
Georgetown University (No. 279)
Virginia Commonwealth University (No. 367)
George Mason University (No. 429)
College of William and Mary (No. 594)
Old Dominion University (No. 630)
Howard University (No. 750)
American University (No. 927)
Catholic University of America (No. 1025)

The global rankings aren’t the final word and should be the start of the school-search process for prospective students and their parents, Narayan says.

“What you need to remember is if an institution is ranked No. 10 vs. ranked No. 50, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the No. 50 school is not the right fit for you,” she said. “You need to really make sure that you dig into the data about that university to figure out: is this the right choice? At the end of the day, going overseas for a degree is an investment in the same way that it is if you’re staying local.”

WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report.