Dartmouth dropped three spots in the latest U.S. News and World Report ranking of undergraduate institutions, putting it in a four-way tie for 10th place in the national university category.
The drop -- to a three-way tie for last in the Ivy League -- comes after three consecutive years of Dartmouth being ranked seventh in the magazine's "America's Best Colleges" issue.
Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities tied for the top spot in the annual survey of universities. Dartmouth is tied with Brown University, Columbia University and Northwestern University for 10th. Amherst is ranked first in the national liberal arts colleges category.
Dartmouth ranked fourth in graduation rates, seventh in student selectivity and second in percent of alumni giving.
It finished 30th for faculty resources and received only a 4.4 out of five possible points for academic reputation -- the lowest score given to any of the schools in the Ivy League. The College scored 95 points overall out of a possible 100.
Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said he did not think the drop would have any impact on applicants for next year's incoming class.
"I don't think these things have a very big impact because we're well known, and our unique strengths are well recognized," Furstenberg said. "As long as you're in that top group, students don't split hairs."
All the freshman students The Dartmouth spoke with agreed with Furstenberg's assessment.
"All the schools in the top 25 are somewhat identical," Connor Price '02 said.
Many students said they had looked at last year's rankings but did not base their college decisions on them.
"I looked at them after I had selected Dartmouth as my first choice school just to make sure there wasn't anything really negative in there," Sam Reisner '02 said.
"It wasn't a factor, but I did look at them," Lisa Bazzle '02 said.
Furstenberg said many of the areas Dartmouth fell short in can be explained by the College's unique size and focus among the national universities.
"The survey measures all the resources of an institution but it's supposed to be a guide to undergraduates," Furstenberg said explaining the poor faculty resource rank. "The bigger places are counting everything but the kitchen sink."
Furstenberg also questioned the College's rank of 17th overall -- and last in the Ivy League -- in the faculty to student ratio.
"I just find it a bit difficult to accept the fact these other places have better student-faculty ratios," he said.
Furstenberg said the low academic reputation score can also be described by Dartmouth's relative lack of high profile graduate schools.
He said the deans and presidents who are surveyed to determine the reputation score are often influenced by the quality of graduate education.
While he said the College "looses out a little bit" because of its small size, he said he disagrees with those who say Dartmouth should be ranked in the liberal arts group.
"In the minds of prospective students we are a national university," Furstenberg said.
The survey has been heavily criticized in recent years for its precise comparative ranking of schools, but most of the students The Dartmouth spoke to said they think the rankings are a positive thing even though they didn't use them to decide on an college.
"It's important to have the rankings," Bazzle said. "They show a lot more than just the overall score."
Reisner feared some students might rely too heavily on the rankings. "I think they are helpful, but I'd rather not see them listed. People use them much more than I did."
Rounding out the top ten universities are Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford tied for fourth; Cornell, Duke and Pennsylvania Universities tied for sixth; the California Institute of Technology at number nine and Brown, Columbia and Northwestern Universities tied with Dartmouth for tenth.
