How to check school ranking by field?

[Opus_723]

I've heard a lot about different schools having stellar reputations in certain subfields of physics, and that this likely matters more for career advancement than how "highly ranked" the school is overall. My question is, as someone who isn't currently plugged into an academic community, how can I find out what a particular school is known for within the active research community? I'm asking very generally, but in my particular situation I don't currently have professors of my own that I could ask. Just the internet. For very well-known institutions it's easy enough to find out by word of mouth on the internet, since they are constantly under discussion, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting any detailed info on smaller state schools.

Thanks!

 

[phinds]

I've heard a lot about different schools having stellar reputations in certain subfields of physics, and that this likely matters more for career advancement than how "highly ranked" the school is overall. My question is, as someone who isn't currently plugged into an academic community, how can I find out what a particular school is known for within the active research community? I'm asking very generally, but in my particular situation I don't currently have professors of my own that I could ask. Just the internet. For very well-known institutions it's easy enough to find out by word of mouth on the internet, since they are constantly under discussion, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting any detailed info on smaller state schools.

Thanks!

Email the school. They'll be happy to toot their own horn and likely have a website that already does it.

 

[jedishrfu]

What schools are you particularly interested in?

Sometimes by looking at the faculty you can discern that they specialize in some particular sub field. As an example, you might see several particle physicists working there so you could conclude that that is their specialty.