Harvard Drops To Third in U.S. News Rankings

For the first time in six years, Harvard was not ranked first in U.S. News and World Report's annual survey of undergraduate colleges. Harvard dropped to third behind Yale and Princeton, which came in first and second, respectively.

According to Mel Elfin, the weekly news magazine's special projects editor and executive editor of the annual "America's Best Colleges" supplement, Harvard fell in the rankings because, for the first time, enough schools reported how many of their classes have more than 50 students to make that statistic significant.

Harvard had been reporting the figure for years, but it wasn't factored in until this year's issue, Elfin said. With 21 percent of classes enrolling more than 50 students, compared with nine percent of Yale classes and 13 percent of Princeton's, Harvard plummeted in the survey.

But Harvard first-years who had applied to the nation's "top" university did not seem disappointed. Some felt that the survey was biased.

"It's a pack of lies," Jerry Ruiz '00 said. "People are jealous of Harvard. [The magazine's editors] just felt like they had to give other universities a chance."

His classmate Cristina Nelson '00 was similarly incredulous. "Who believes the U.S. News anyway?" she said.

Scott Tribble '98 had a different theory.

The junior said he suspects the survey wouldn't be as interesting if Harvard won every year. "They're probably looking for some variety," he said of the magazine's editors.

Harvard officials also appeared unfazed by the ranking. "I don't think these rankings have much to do with anything," President Neil L. Rudenstine said.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said, "When we are ranked No. 1 we say how wise [the U.S. News editors] are, but when we are ranked something else we say they must be mistaken."

Elfin said the survey is completely objective. He noted that he earned a master's degree in American history from Harvard in 1952. The issue's managing editor, Alvin P. Sanoff '63, is also a Harvard alumnus.

The top three schools' faculty-to-student ratios ultimately determined the rankings, Elfin said. "There is little difference among the top three schools. It's infinitesimal," he said. "The key factor was that Harvard has a faculty-to-student ratio of 12-to-1 while Yale's is 9-to-1 and Princeton's is 8-to-1. When you have very small differences, numbers like that make the difference."

Only undergraduate data was used in the survey of 1,422 colleges.

Although Harvard came in third in overall rankings, the magazine ranked it first in admissions selectivity, with a 12 percent acceptance rate, and student retention. Harvard also has the highest yield--75 percent--of admitted students who enroll in the university, compared with 54 percent at Yale and 60 percent at Princeton.

"Parents and students should be very well satisfied to send their children to any one of the top schools," Elfin said.

Further, Harvard's age and prestige should make it immune to magazine rankings, Elfin said.

"When you're America's oldest and richest university and your yield is higher than the other schools and your reputation is world-wide, this doesn't affect Harvard really one way or another," he said.

New Harvard students said yesterday the U.S. News ranking played no role in their decision to go to Har- U.S. News' Top Ten Universities U.S. News' ranking will hit newsstands this week. Rank/University 1. Yale University 2. Princeton University 3. Harvard University 4. Duke University 5. MIT 6. Stanford University 7. Dartmouth College 8. Brown University 9. CalTech * 9. Northwestern * * Tied

Source: U.S. News and World Report vard. "We live about 10 miles away from Yale," said Sharon Tracey, mother of Shannon Tracey '00. "My daughter always wanted to go to Yale, until she saw Cambridge. I would rather have my daughter in Cambridge than New Haven."

Kelly Stage '00 said, "Even if Yale were number one, I wouldn't have gone there."

In the survey, Duke University was ranked fourth and MIT fifth. Rounding out the Top 10 list, in order, were Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Brown University, the California Institute of Technology and North-western University, which both tied for ninth place.

U.S. News is facing competition from its two larger rivals, Newsweek and Time, which both began publishing their own college supplements this year. The U.S. News college ranking is the Washington-based magazine's most profitable issue of the year

Source: U.S. News and World Report vard. "We live about 10 miles away from Yale," said Sharon Tracey, mother of Shannon Tracey '00. "My daughter always wanted to go to Yale, until she saw Cambridge. I would rather have my daughter in Cambridge than New Haven."

Kelly Stage '00 said, "Even if Yale were number one, I wouldn't have gone there."

In the survey, Duke University was ranked fourth and MIT fifth. Rounding out the Top 10 list, in order, were Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Brown University, the California Institute of Technology and North-western University, which both tied for ninth place.

U.S. News is facing competition from its two larger rivals, Newsweek and Time, which both began publishing their own college supplements this year. The U.S. News college ranking is the Washington-based magazine's most profitable issue of the year

Kelly Stage '00 said, "Even if Yale were number one, I wouldn't have gone there."

In the survey, Duke University was ranked fourth and MIT fifth. Rounding out the Top 10 list, in order, were Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Brown University, the California Institute of Technology and North-western University, which both tied for ninth place.

U.S. News is facing competition from its two larger rivals, Newsweek and Time, which both began publishing their own college supplements this year. The U.S. News college ranking is the Washington-based magazine's most profitable issue of the year