NYU Tops New ‘Dream’ Rankings

The Crimson beat the Elis but still fell to the Violets in the Princeton Review’s second annual ranking of “dream colleges” released earlier this week.

New York University’s first-place finish over Harvard came in a survey which asked 3,036 applicants and 303 parents of applicants what university they deemed most desirable, assuming acceptance and financial considerations were not an issue.

Second-place Harvard was followed by Stanford, Yale and Duke. Brown, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania were the only three Ivy League schools to fail to crack the top 10.

Though Harvard may not be accustomed to being second, Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said he was quite pleased with the ranking.

“We’re happy to be in the top 100 of any survey,” Fitzsimmons said.

But he said that he does have reservations about rankings in general and usually instructs parents to ignore them, focusing instead on finding “the right match between school and individual student.”

And while Fitzsimmons said that no plans existed to make Harvard dreamier, he was quick to note that sampling error could be to blame for Harvard’s second place finish.

Robert Franek, the editor of the Princeton Review, said he was not surprised by the results of the ranking.

“Schools in urban areas are very desirable for kids. They connect in-class and out-of-class experiences,” he said. “Schools in urban areas definitely have a leg up.”

John Beckman, the director of NYU’s public relations office, said he was less concerned with his school’s triumph than the overall merits of rankings in general.

Although he said he would “prefer to do better rather than worse,” Beckman—who had not seen the survey as of yesterday—argued that all rankings “feed on an American obsession with lists, who’s the best dressed, who’s in, who’s out.”

Beckman did note, however, that NYU’s popularity has surged in recent years.

The volume of applications has tripled in the past 13 years, he said. In 1991 NYU received just under 10,000 applications; this year applications totaled almost 34,000.

And the ranking comes as good news to a school community which has grappled with the tragic suicides of four students this academic year.

To explain NYU’s triumph over Harvard in particular, Beckman cited an overwhelming superiority in the former school’s location.

“With all due respect to Boston, New York is the greatest city in the world,” Beckman said.

Andrew R. Silverman ’07 said he disagreed with rankings but understood where the pro-NYU sentiment was coming from.

“People’s infatuation with New York is understandable, as I am from there,” he said. “[But] I am not enough for people to want NYU over Harvard.”

John K. Ames ’06 said he, too, understood the results but noted “that other than NYU the top five are basically my top five choices as well.”

In last year’s survey, Stanford topped the rankings, followed by NYU, and then Harvard.

The Princeton Review’s survey, entitled the “College Hopes and Worries Survey,” sought to “shed light on the aspirations and anxieties families are facing” this time of year, according to a press release.

The “dream college” survey differs from other Princeton Review surveys because results come from college-bound high school students as opposed to students already in college.

The survey, which can be found on the Princeton Review website, is included in their book, The Best 351 Colleges.