Following were Michigan, the University of Washington, Penn State, Yale, and Wisconsin. Rounding out the Top Twenty were Princeton, Penn, UCLA, Cal Davis, and Georgia Tech.

　　“The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure an institution’s perceived value using the same methodologies used to compare any other products of value, such as BMW vs. Mercedes,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of Global Language Monitor. “GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.”

　　In a remarkable demonstration of the growing influence of the Public Ivies, some fourteen of the Top Thirty schools are public institutions, and now include eight Big Ten schools, six from the Ivy League (Brown and Dartmouth were the exceptions), three Technological Institutes – and four from California’s fabled University system.

　　Overall, the University of California system, as a whole continues to dwarf all other academic associations, leagues and conferences. This is a fine tribute to a system that has had to endure a continued series of budget cuts and cutbacks.

　　The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the 75,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter).

　　The Top 25 Universities by Internet Media Buzz

　　Rank/University/Last/Comment

　　1. Harvard University (3) – Dr. Faust sets things aright and Harvard again assumes the No. 1 spot in the survey.

　　2. Northwestern University (31) – Catapults to No.2 while leading the Big Ten charge up the rankings.

　　3. University of California, Berkeley (8) – Cal considers itself THE University of California and the rankings back this up.

　　4. Columbia University (5) – Columbia has never finished out of the Top 10 in the TrendTopper rankings.

　　5. California Institute of Technology (19) – CalTech nips its East Coast competitor for top tech honors.

　　6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4) – The former ‘Boston Tech’ rejected Harvard’s repeated entreaties to merge in the late 19th century.

　　7. Stanford University (11) – The former ‘Harvard of the West’ has long emerged from Cantabrigia’s fabled shadow.

　　8. University of Chicago (2) – Dropped out of the Big Ten in the late 1930s; loss of big-time football doesn’t seem to have hurt their rankings.

　　9. University of Texas, Austin (10) – It new branding, “What starts here, changes the world’ is more than a slogan.

　　10. Cornell University (7) – Few know that the Ivy titan is also a Land Grant institution.

　　11. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (6) – Took top honors twice in previous surveys.

　　12. University of Washington (17) – U Dub, as it is affectionately known, is the emerging powerhouse of the Northwest.

　　13. Pennsylvania State University (24) — Penn State’s new identity campaign has evidently been quite successful.

　　14. Yale University (9) – Vassar declined an invitation to merge with Yale in 1966.

　　15. University of Wisconsin, Madison (1) – Had a very strong global media run during the previous cycle.

　　16. Princeton University (12) – The First Lady’s Alma Mater was originally known as the College of New Jersey.

　　17. University of Pennsylvania (22) – The Wharton School greatly strengthens Penn’s brand equity.

　　18. University of California, Los Angeles (16) – Tops in LaLa Land, though USC is making great strides forward.

　　19. University of California, Davis (13) – Originally established as the agricultural extension of UC Berkeley known as the University Farm.

　　20. Georgia Institute of Technology (27) – The Yellow Jackets ramble into the Top 20.

　　21. Georgetown University (14) – Once again, the Top Catholic University in the land.

　　22. New York University (18) – Growing global ambitions reflected in the global media.

　　23. Indiana University, Bloomington (46) – Steadily gaining in prestige and the rankings reflect it.

　　24. Boston College (39) – A generation ago, the Flutie Effect launched the school on its present stellar trajectory.

　　25. University of California, San Diego (23) – UCSD receives about a billion dollars a year in research grants.