Princeton tops US varsity list again

WASHINGTON: Princeton University retained its No. 1 rank among undergraduate schools on the annual list published by US News & World Report after dozens of college presidents criticised the ratings as unfair.

Princeton, the top school for eight straight years, beat Ivy League rivals Harvard and Yale, Washington-based U.S. News said in a statement today. Williams College was named the top liberal arts school for the fifth consecutive year, ahead of Amherst and Swarthmore.

About half the members of the Annapolis Group, an association of 120 private, liberal arts colleges, are protesting the ratings system that started in 1983.

 None of the 61 presidents who pledged to boycott a key component of the survey were from schools ranked in the top 25 on either list. A high rank from US News influences college applicants, said John Maguire, the former admissions dean at Boston College.

“It’s more significant among families than people give it credit for, and it’s more influential among schools than people give it credit for,” said Maguire, 67, now chairman of Maguire Associates Inc., a consulting company in Concord, Massachusetts.

US News ranked 1,342 institutions, including 262 classified as national universities and 266 liberal arts colleges. All schools in the top 10 were among that group a year ago.

“These are big institutions and they don’t change radically,” said Brian Kelly, the editor of US News. “It’s not the intention of the rankings to come up with radically new formulas every year”.

Military schools

The service academies were ranked for the first time. The US Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland, placed 20th among liberal arts schools. The US Military Academy, in West Point, New York, was 22nd.

Among national universities, Princeton in New Jersey was one of four schools rated most highly by peer institutions, a score that accounted for 25 percent of its overall mark. Princeton also had the highest rate of donations by alumni, US News said.

“We’re gratified that Princeton continues to be recognised, not only for the overall quality of the education we provide, but also for our commitment to financial aid initiatives,” Princeton said in a statement.

Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California, finished fourth. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, tied for fifth.

The University of California, Berkeley, in 21st place, is the highest-ranking public institution.

Protests

Over the 24-year history of the U.S. News rankings, colleges have complained that the system is subjective and wields too much influence.

The protests have centered this year on the so-called peer assessments, which ask presidents and other officials to grade similar schools on their reputations.

The number of protesters increased fivefold since 12 college presidents issued a letter in May asking their schools to withhold cooperation from U.S. News’s peer assessment. The movement gained momentum in June at a meeting of the Annapolis Group.