A drop in the College's score for academic reputation caused Dartmouth to slip a place this year in a national news magazine's ranking of the nation's top universities.
Dartmouth slipped into the eighth slot after holding the seventh spot tied with Duke University last year in U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking. The issue hits newsstands Monday.
The magazine's annual report ranked 204 national universities on academic reputation, the percentage of alumni who donate, the percentage of students who graduate and the average Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of entering students, among other criteria.
According to Al Sanoff, managing editor of the news magazine, the main reason for Dartmouth's slip in standings was a change in its score for academic reputation, where the College fell from 15th to 16th. Academic reputation accounts for 25 percent of a school's total score.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said he was surprised Duke ranked higher than Dartmouth, but said the change will not negatively affect admissions.
"These rankings are somewhat trivial," Furstenburg said. "We don't pay too much attention to them." But he said he would be concerned if Dartmouth was not ranked in the top 10.
Although he shrugged off the importance of the survey, Furstenburg said Dartmouth should be ranked higher than Duke.
"We have a stronger class than Duke," he said. "We could pick on Duke all afternoon. It makes no sense to me that they ranked higher than us."
Duke's rank for academic reputation moved up the scale from 12th to seventh. Furstenberg called that jump "ridiculous."
The data on SAT scores and student selectivity in this year's ranking were taken from the Class of 1996. The Class of 1997's test scores and high school grades were considerably higher than those of last year's freshmen.
The College's score did not change from last year, but Duke's moved up 1.3 percent to push the North Carolina university into sole position of the seventh spot.
Dartmouth ranked second in graduation rate and first in alumni satisfaction, which is based on the percentage of alumni who gave money to the College over the last two years.
Those two rankings were previously part of the score for student satisfaction. Last year, Harvard dethroned Dartmouth for the number one slot in student satisfaction.
The College also dropped in the faculty resources ranking from 11th to 12th, which accounted for 20 percent of the total score.
Over 2,655 college presidents, deans and admissions directors were interviewed for the survey, according to the magazine's media relations office.
Harvard and Amherst were rated the best university and liberal arts college in the nation, respectively. Amherst knocked off Williams, which previously held the top spot.
