* By application numbers: Harvard University consistently receives the highest number of applications globally.
* By acceptance rate: Many highly selective universities, such as Stanford, MIT, and Caltech, have extremely low acceptance rates, indicating high demand.
* By global rankings: Rankings like those from QS, Times Higher Education, and ARWU vary yearly, but universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, and Cambridge frequently appear at the top. These rankings consider factors like research output, faculty reputation, and student-to-faculty ratios, not necessarily overall popularity in terms of applications.
* By student satisfaction: This is subjective and varies widely based on individual student experiences.
Therefore, while Harvard often tops application numbers, the "most popular" university is highly dependent on the metric used. It's more accurate to say that several elite universities consistently rank highly in various measures of prestige and desirability.