Speaking specifically of computer science programs, in eastern Canada (mostly Quebec and Ontario), there's a computer science contest called the CS Games. It's mostly just for fun and networking, but it's interesting to see where different universities ranked in different events. Relatively unknown universities like Carleton (my alma mater) placed excellently in extreme programming and algorithms, but not so well in debugging and shell scripting.
But to draw a parallel to your comment, both Sherbrooke and Harvard attended. Sherbrooke being relatively unknown outside of computer science circles. Well that year, Sherbrooke absolutely dominated every competition placing 4th or better in every event, and 1st overall. Harvard however placed last nearly every event (except AI where they were in the middle of the pack).
Looking at the overall reputations of both of these universities, Harvard is by far the more well known and respected. Just like the article was saying, overall rankings aren't very useful, and that if you're serious about getting a good education, you'll have to dig deeper.
Well to be fair Harvard isn't ranked that highly for CS, and this single data point doesn't say a whole lot about it either. You'll find CS undergrads that are willing to enter, but would place last in this competition at MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon.... every school.
Just playing devil's advocate here. Rankings are a crapshoot, and I don't love the Ivies at all.
A competition isn't necessarily the best metric b/c the competitors are going to be a biased subset of the overall student body, and may not actually represent the quality of the education. I didn't go to a great school but there were still some very brilliant people there.
But to draw a parallel to your comment, both Sherbrooke and Harvard attended. Sherbrooke being relatively unknown outside of computer science circles. Well that year, Sherbrooke absolutely dominated every competition placing 4th or better in every event, and 1st overall. Harvard however placed last nearly every event (except AI where they were in the middle of the pack).
Looking at the overall reputations of both of these universities, Harvard is by far the more well known and respected. Just like the article was saying, overall rankings aren't very useful, and that if you're serious about getting a good education, you'll have to dig deeper.