Harvard Second “Dream College”

For the second straight year, New York University (NYU) topped Harvard as the number one “dream college,” according to the Princeton Review’s annual “College Hopes & Worries Survey,” released on Wednesday.

Though Harvard was second to NYU, it still placed ahead of Stanford, Princeton, and Ivy League nemesis Yale.

To rank the schools, the Princeton Review asked 2,885 high school students and 1,045 parents which “dream college” they would most like to attend (or see their child attend) without regard to the chances of admission or cost.

Though Harvard is not used to coming in second, the rankings did not irk Director of Admissions for Harvard College Marlyn McGrath Lewis ’70-’73.

“NYU is a terrific place and I’m not surprised that students recognize that,” Lewis said.

“It’s nice that we’re popular too,” she added, noting that Harvard’s primary objective is attracting quality applicants, not high rankings.

“What matters is who shows up in September,” Lewis said. “Our primary concern is to recruit the best students.”

Speaking for NYU, John Beckman, Vice President of Public Affairs, took a stronger stance against college rankings.

“These rankings are a device to sell magazines that feed on an American fixation with lists,” he said.

Beckman said that different types of colleges cannot be ranked side by side.

“If you want to be in a rural setting, NYU is not the place for you,” he said. “But if you want to be in the greatest city on earth, then Ann Arbor or Cambridge is not the place for you.”

In 1991, NYU received fewer than 10,000 applications for undergraduate admission. This year, it processed just under 34,000, more applications for freshman admission than any other private college or university in the country, according to Beckman.

“There’s probably not another American university that has seen such a dramatic turn of events,” he said. “More and more students are interested in an urban education.”

Robert Franek, Vice President and Publisher for Princeton Review Books, agreed that schools in urban areas such as NYU are flourishing.

“Powerful cities have access that they give to their students,” Franek said, referring to the abundance of internship and job opportunities in large cities.

But industry competitor Robert Morse, Director of Data Research for US News and World Report, takes issue with Princeton Review’s survey.

“Princeton Review is trying to get at the buzz factor of what the most popular place is to go,” he said.

Both Franek and Morse agreed, however, that rankings help to guide college applicants.

“I think they provide a service to students and parents, assuming that they are intelligent enough to digest the data and accept it for what it is,” Morse said. “This is one tool in the admissions process.”

Franek suggested that students use the rankings to supplement, not replace, their own college searches.

“It’s not my intention that one should cross out any schools not in the top ten,” he said.

The survey is available on the Princeton Review website and in the Princeton Review book “Best 357 Colleges: 2005 Edition.”