Best Architecture School?

Recently I have been burrying myself in research for architecture education. It might seem a little bit late after investing 7 years in the field, but the constant request from family friends asking for advice of best architecture schools put me to shame.

What do I know about architecture schools and the career paths of architecture? I have never done any substantial research prior to entering this profession. In recent occasions of job interviews, when asked how I became an architect, my response normally involved long preplexed thinking, then the answer would start like "It was almost by chance..."

I consequently found extensive rankings for architecture schools all over the world, and was surprised that most people actually think that architecture education can actually be RATED. Some introduction to the rankings sound like this: "Our survey is intended to aid postgrads {graduates} seeking a place to conduct architectural research. The survey does not claim to be a guide to those keen to become working architects", which translates to me as "This is a piece of eloquent rubbish designed to mislead naive students having unrealistic dreams in architecture to a point of no return".

I was releaved to find more and more universities are refusing to participate in architecture rankings. It is just not the best way to guide people from the doorstep of architecture.

Still, to satisfy greedy students with the crave for the best, I collected rankings for 3 countries. Just for the record, here they are, 2009 ratings from ARCHSOC.COM:

USA:
1. Columbia University
2. University of California, Los Angeles
3. Princeton University
4. University of Pennsylvania
5. Yale Universtiy
6. University of California, Berkeley
7. Harvard University
8. Rice University
9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
10. University of Notre Dame

UK:
1. Royal College of Art
2. University of Bath
3. University of Cambridge
4. University of Sheffield
5. University College London
6. Cardiff University
7. University of Liverpool
8. Oxford Brookes University
9. Queen's University of Belfast
10. University of Strathclyde

Australia:
1. University of Queensland
2. University of Melbourne
3. University of Tasmania
4. RMIT University
5. University of Newcastle
6. University of New South Wales
7. University of Adelaide
8. University of Technology, Sydney
9. Deakin University
10. University of Sydney