<p>Granted, the Students Review site (and others like it) are of limited use, especially when it comes to ranking one school against another. Nevertheless, this site was created and is maintained by an MIT grad student and does take a relatively scientific approach to interpreting the data (see link =
<a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/2005_NYD_rankings/rankings_explained.php3%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentsreview.com/2005_NYD_rankings/rankings_explained.php3</a>).</p>
<p>The site may be most useful for its reviews. Many of the people who write to this site (and other similar sites) are looking for a venue to vent their frustrations, and for this reason, many of the reviews seem to be rather negative. Dartmouth, for example, with its # 1 rankings, still only showed a 73.8% approval rating (Harvard's was only 65.1%). </p>
<p>Many of the reviews are worthless, and some are suspiciously illiterate; however buried among the detritus there are actually quite a few really well-written and insightful mini-essays. (see link = <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/NH/DC_c.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentsreview.com/NH/DC_c.html</a>). </p>
<p>Nobody should make decisions about a college based on a single survey or rankings (whether they are from a "dubious" site like Students Review or from US News or the Princeton Review), but if nothing else, these sites offer points for discussion and may introduce some questions worth asking of those who are perhaps more knowledgeable.</p>