<p>Princeton first in The Consus Group's university rankings</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES, CaliforniaPrinceton University ranked first in The Consus Group's annual survey of undergraduate universities. Harvard and Yale tied for second, with Dartmouth and The University of Chicago completing the top five.</p>
<p>The Consus Group generally analyzes contracts, industries, and companies. Occasionally, however, TCG displays its analytical expertise on other subjects of interest to the business and legal communities. Its university rankings are one of these periodic exercises.</p>
<p>TCG determined the nation's best undergraduate universities using a sophisticated methodology. This approach canvassed numerous factors, including: published rankings, selectivity, placement and salary statistics, and class yields.</p>
<p>Published Rankings: A proxy for prestige, published rankings proved a useful metric for assessing a university's reputation. To eliminate the vagaries of published rankings, The Consus Group incorporated both current and historical ratings from numerous sources. </p>
<p>Selectivity: TCG measured the quality of universities' admitted candidates using SAT scores, high school GPAs, and the percentage of applicants admitted. Typically, the best schools attract many of the best candidatesproviding another proxy for prestige. </p>
<p>Placement & Salary: Placement and salary statistics provided objective measures of universities' performance placing their graduates. To reduce annual fluctuations in placement and salary statistics, TCG used current and historical placement and salary statistics. </p>
<p>Yield: Yield measured the percentage of admitted candidates actually matriculating to the admitting universityanother indication of a school's appeal. </p>
<p>While many university rankings fluctuate wildly from year to year, TCG's methodology produces a stable, accurate picture of America's best undergraduate universities.</p>
<p>About TCG</p>
<p>Founded by attorneys and management consultants, The Consus Group provides crucial intelligence about contracts, industries, and companies. TCG's research products clarify complicated legal agreements, explain industry structures and relationships, and provide unparalleled competitive intelligence. TCG also provides complementary professional services, including customized contract and industry analyses.</p>
<p>The Consus Group's intelligence products are state-of-the-art. TCG uses a sophisticated infrastructure to amass and process enormous amounts of information from many sources. This information is compiled in massive databases, dissected with powerful statistical tools, and synthesized by experts.</p>