With slight changes in the U.S. News & World Report's methodology, Dartmouth jumped two spaces to ninth place in the hotly contested list released Sept. 1.
This year, Princeton University was ranked first among the 228 national universities, and Harvard and Yale Universities tied for second place.
Also in the top ten were California Institute of Technology -- which held first place last year -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University. Columbia and Cornell Universities fell behind Dartmouth in a tie for number ten on the list.
Brown University fell markedly to 15th place -- making it the lowest ranked of the Ivy League schools and below schools like Northwestern, Rice and the University of Chicago. Johns Hopkins -- which was number six last year -- fell back significantly to number 15, tying with Brown.
In the category of National Liberal Arts Colleges, Amherst College was ranked number one, followed by Swarthmore, Williams, Wellesley, Pamona, Bowdoin, Carleton, Haverford, Middlebury and Wesleyan.
Although there are alternate ranking systems -- such as one released in July that orders schools in ranges such as the top 25, rather than in specific slots -- the U.S. News college rankings are the most widely used by prospective college students.
Many of the first year students who talked to The Dartmouth yesterday said they had looked at college rankings before or during their college search processes. However, most said that the place a college held on a list was not an important factor in their final decision.
"I think everybody knows that there are other factors that are more important," Charles Gardner '04 said, referring to size, location and course offerings as better deciding factors.
Heather Lapin '04, who lived in Japan for five years before coming to Dartmouth, said she did look at the rankings, but not because she was worried about the numbers.
"It's another point of information about this school," she said, explaining that she would not necessarily choose a school just because it was ranked closer to number one.
Mildred Cambero said she considered the rankings to find out about quality of life, academic ratio and student-faculty ratio.
"Everybody else was looking at it," she said.
According to Director of Admissions Karl Furstenberg, most students do not take the college rankings very seriously.
"I don't think that the individual or specific rank numbers have a major impact on admissions results for highly selective colleges, which Dartmouth is," he said.
Director of Public Affairs Laurel Stavis seconded Furstenberg's take on the college rankings.
"I think that when you're in the top tier of institutions nationally, you're really talking about angels dancing on the head of a pin," she said, noting that the differences between the most highly ranked schools are "incredibly small."
She explained that it is tough to apply a quantitative ranking system to the Dartmouth experience, which she classified as "an experience that is essentially qualitative."
College Provost Susan Prager said applicants and their parents do look at the rankings, but she added, "When you're dealing with as accomplished an applicant pool as we have, most of the applicants are looking well beyond rankings."
She said more important factors that prospective students consider and the breadth and quantity the College has as well as atmosphere.
U.S. News suggests that students should not make their ultimate college choices based on their rankings -- but that they use the numbers as a guide in making selections.
"In studying the tables it's important to remember that their best use is for comparing colleges within a category; you don't want simply to focus on the winners," the Best Colleges 2001 report warns.
This year the report changed its criteria based on suggestions from their college advisory board about the way to treat spending per student on education. Last year, big universities with large research programs benefited from the ranking system, which did not consider how many funds were going towards undergraduate and how many were going towards graduate students.
The U.S. News formula this year gave the most weight to academic reputation, citing the fact that degrees from distinguished colleges and universities hold the most weight in post-college jobs or graduate school applications.
Other factors considered were student retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rage and alumni giving rate.
This year, the rankings were accidentally leaked a day before their scheduled date of release because of a distribution mix-up in Middlebury, VT. Jim Denko, a grocery manager at the Grand Union in Middlebury, said deliverymen accidentally filled racks with the new magazines before schedule, probably not knowing the official release date.
Richard Folkers, director of media relations for U.S. News & World Report told The Dartmouth at the time that he had no idea how the magazines got out early, but said he had heard many stories third hand.
"They're printed in July," he said. ""And we don't put armed guards on them."
He compared the leak to copies of Harry Potter getting out before schedule earlier this summer. "The most closely guarded book of this year got out to the news stands early."
