When you’re researching college options, one of the ways you can learn more about the schools you’re considering is to look at college rankings. In the past decade, one of the lists that has become most popular is the Times “Top 200 World Universities” list. Although there are a number of factors that you should consider when choosing a school, the Times list is a great way to learn about some of the best colleges located around the world.

Who is Times?

The Times college list is compiled by Times Higher Education, a weekly magazine based out of London. Times Higher Education has been in publication since 1971, and until 2008, it was in newspaper format. They first published a college list in 2004 in conjunction with Quacquaarelli Symonds (QS). 2009 was the final year for this partnership, and from 2010 on, the list will be published in conjunction with Thomson Reuters even fall.

Why should you Trust Times?

Although this list is relatively new, it is considered one of the best international college lists, along with the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which is compiled by China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Many see the break from QS as a good thing, as the methodology for creating the list will likely improve even more over the coming years.

What is their Methodology?

Over the next few years, we will likely see changes to the Times Higher Education college rankings, since the Thomson Reuters partnership will mean improvements to the methodology. Until the system is changed, however, following categories are used to rate all of the schools in the world:

• Peer Review Score
• Faculty/Student Score
• Citations/Faculty Score
• Recruiter Review Score
• International Faculty Score
• International Students Score

The main criticism with this methodology is that the peer review score is worth 40% of the total score. When colleges fill out their surveys, they are asked to rank other colleges, and unfortunately, some colleges give others unfair low rankings in order to potentially affect their own score.

In addition to ranking colleges around the world in a top 200 list, they also produce a number of smaller lists, where colleges are characterized by area of expertise. These categories are as follows:

• Engineering and IT
• Science and Biomedicine
• Natural Sciences
• Social Sciences
• Arts and Humanities

Time published its list both in their magazine and on their website, and they also have a number of resources analyzing the lists and talking about the results. Although we’ll likely see this methodology change over the next few years, the Times college rankings will continue to be one of the best ways that students and parents can learn about the best schools in the world. Remember, use this list and other college rankings as tools to help you pick a school, but not as an overall authority. You need to find a college that fits you well, and that means something different to every student.