<p>i believe this marks six straight years at #1.</p>
<p>cool : )</p>
<p>(10chars)</p>
<p>Pretty good. Now how about knocking Harvard down so we can get up there?</p>
<p>Maybe?</p>
<p>August 19, 2005</p>
<p>Harvard, Princeton top U.S. News' list</p>
<p>Associated Press</p>
<p>For the third consecutive year, Harvard and Princeton share the top spot in the U.S. News & World Report 2006 rankings of America's best colleges.</p>
<p>In fact, the full rankings look much like last year; no school in the top 20 moved more than two spots in either direction.</p>
<p>Rounding out the top five are Yale at third, the University of Pennsylvania at fourth, and Duke and Stanford, who tied for fifth. The top four liberal-arts colleges also are unchanged, with Williams again No. 1.</p>
<p>The formula for the controversial rankings includes variables such as graduation and retention rates, faculty and financial resources, and the percentage of alumni donating money.</p>
<p>After years of criticism for tinkering with its formula, the magazine has more or less settled on an equation over the past decade and hasn't changed it at all since dropping admissions yield -- the number of accepted students who attend a school -- as a criterion three years ago.</p>
<p>''So much for the theory that every year U.S. News is determined to seek publicity by blowing up the old formula and putting in something all new,'' said Ben Wildavsky, the guide's editor.</p>
<p>But some critics say the formula should be changed, arguing it fails to account for many aspects of educational quality.</p>
<p>More administrators appear to be protesting the rankings by declining to grade other colleges; that accounts for 25 percent of a school's ranking. The response rate has fallen from 67 percent in 2002 to 57 percent this year.</p>
<p>"No one can know for sure what is going on at another institution," said Marty O'Connell, dean of admission at McDaniel College in Maryland, who refuses to grade other schools.</p>
<p>Robert Morse, the magazine's director of data research, acknowledges that the response rate has slipped but said, "there's still a credible number of respondents per school."</p>
<p>In the 15 years of rankings in more or less the current form, Harvard has been ranked first 11 times, second 3 times, and 3rd once.</p>
<p>And Princeton?</p>
<p>Congratulations Princeton =P. No matter what others on CC say to try to dismiss our school, we know its just THAT good haha =P</p>
<p>Harvard's dominance at the top only discredits the rankings, Byerly.</p>
<p>Yea, how about Princeton?</p>
<p>how is harvard being at the top discredit the rankings? is stanford supposed to top harvard? lol.</p>
<p>Harvard is on the top of the list just because its name begins with an "H" while Princeton's with a "P" its in alphabetical order but it creates an impression of Harvard being "on top of the list". They both share #1 spot...</p>
<p>Yeah they had an april fools in the princetonian that said that princeton was changing its name to "Arinceton" to be able to surpass Harvard.</p>
<p>Surpass? Princeton has no surpassing whatsoever to do :). That's the point, but yes I understand where your statement is derived (order of names affecting placement between equivalent schools)</p>
<p>Harvard's undergraduate education is severely lacking. If USNews chose to concentrate on academics rather than vague indicators like "faculty resources," its dominance at the top would come to an end. Harvard's undergraduate program is no better than Stanford's or Yale's, and its core curriculum is a joke.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Pretty good. Now how about knocking Harvard down so we can get up there?<<</p>
<p>Harvard's dominance at the top only discredits the rankings, Byerly.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>You can't have it both ways Zephyr, especially not in the same thread. The USNWR rankings can't be regarded as good when they put Princeton number 1 but discredited when they put Harvard at number 1.</p>
<p>The ranking is either equally good with both schools being ranked first or equally discredited by both schools being ranked first.</p>
<p>Not necessarily true.</p>
<p>Byerly, what do you have to say about zephyr's claim that Harvard's undergraduate curriculum is a joke.</p>
<p>(spare us from those stupid revealed preference links)</p>
<p>"The gulf that separates Harvard from the rest in terms of reputation remains enormous.</p>
<p>"It used to be the case that of students who were admitted to Harvard and Princeton or Harvard and Yale, seven of 10 would choose to go to Harvard," Katz (of Princeton) said. "It may be more now. There is a tendency for the academically best to skew even more to Harvard. We just get our socks beat off in those cases."</p>
<p>"22,796 applied last year for admission to the Harvard College class of 2009, a record. The school accepted 2,074, or 9.1 percent. It's that kind of selectivity ... that gives Harvard a measurable advantage over other top programs. "</p>
<p>you ducked zyphers claim that Harvard's undergraduate curriculum is a joke.</p>
<p>doggie really ran !!</p>
<p>"Zepher's claim?"</p>
<p>Who is "Zepher" and why is he an expert on Harvard's curriculum? </p>
<p>A nice kid, undoubtedly, and very smart - but 2 months out of high school in California and not 1 day as a college student at his second choice Stanford yet!</p>
<p>I wish him all the best.</p>