Web Site Ranks Harvard Behind Rival Princeton

At the end of last summer, U.S. News & World Report ranked Harvard No. 2 behind the California Institute of Technology in its annual list of the top national universities.

Now, according to a new Web site, Ritzsurvey.com, Harvard has taken second place again--this time among Ivy League colleges--with Princeton taking the lead.

The Ritz Survey of Colleges and Universities recently released "preview" ratings of the Ivy League schools, based on more than 2,000 on-line student responses, according to an e-mail message from Jim Corbett, the editor of Ritz Survey.

The Web site features rankings of the Ivy League colleges and the University of California colleges. The site, founded this year, also ranks doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, lawyers and politicians on its Web site.

In its ranking of the Ivy League schools, Ritz Survey included four main categories--faculty, administration, student life and facilities. Each category is scored from one to 50.

Harvard was ranked first in student life and tied for first in facilities with Princeton. But, according to the survey, it falls behind Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale and Princeton in both faculty and in administration.

The faculty score was determined by ratings in "courtesy," "engagement," "accessibility" and "care." The administration score was based on scores in "attentiveness," "bureaucracy," "accessibility" and "care." The Web site does not give explanations as to how these sub-categories are to be defined.

Princeton received an overall score of 178 points while Harvard received 165. Third-place Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania each scored 164.

Despite Harvard's second place ranking, Ritz Survey praises the University.

"[A] 'brilliant' student body is the hallmark of Harvard, as are 'excellent professors who are approachable if one is willing to make the effort,'" the Web site reads.

But the site also criticizes the school for its large class sizes, stringent Core requirements and policies that put "a damper on social life."

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn said he was unaware of the Web site, but that in general, rankings like this one are unimportant.

"We don't put a lot of credence in surveys," Wrinn said. "The main point is for a student to go the school best for him or her regardless of what a survey says."

The Web site has spaces for students to fill out electronic surveys about their colleges.

While students must register a name and password to submit surveys, there is no mechanism to ensure that the Ivy League survey respondents actually attended the school they were commenting on. The site also allows visitors to submit an unlimited number of surveys.

The Web site does not indicate how many students responded from each one of the individual schools.

Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73, director of admissions, said that surveys don't have much effect on applicants' decisions. Objective information about facilities, the graduation rate and other facts are more important for applicants, she said.

"What is certainly true is that public sources of information as opposed to rankings [are] very helpful to students and families and in the past 10 years has produced a very informed applicant pool," she said.

According to Celeste James, the director of public affairs for U.S. News & World Report, no one at that magazine was aware of the survey.

Even if it does become more well-known, it will not be competition for the rankings put out by U.S. News, James said.

"Our survey is a very particular product and service, and we don't see other surveys as competition," she said.