Yale tops U.S. News & World Report Survey
Ask any Olympic gold medalist, any Nobel Prize winner, any Miss or Mister Universe: No matter how worthy the competition or how close the judges' call, it feels pretty darned good to be named Number One.
Perhaps it's understandable, then, why the campus broke out into a collective grin at the news that Yale has been ranked first- place among the nation's universities in the Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges published in the Sept. 16 issue of U.S. News & World Report.
Some of the biggest, most triumphant smiles appeared on the faces of students. "The word is out!" brayed the front page of the undergraduate-run weekly newspaper The Yale Herald, which also featured an image of Harkness Tower superimposed over a huge "1."
"U.S. News concedes the obvious: Yale is Number 1," read the front-page headline in the Yale Daily News.
According to The Yale Herald, "claiming the number one spot gave Yalies the chance to indulge in less-than-modest expressions of school pride." Throughout the campus, undergraduates could be heard screaming "We're number one!" from their windows as the word spread, reported the newspaper.
Yale has twice before held the number-one spot, in 1987 and 1988, although Harvard has held that distinction in recent years -- a fact that inspired The Herald headline-writers to declare: "Harvard Dethroned."
Reaction to the U.S. News survey among Yale administrators and faculty has been more restrained, if no less positive. "I don't think it's wrong to remind people that this is not the sacred oracle that has spoken," says Yale College Dean Richard H. Brodhead. "However, I can't pretend to feel anything but profound pleasure at this news."
"I'm thrilled," admits Richard H. Shaw Jr., dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid. "We're taking it with a grain of salt, but we're enjoying it -- why not?"
"I think I'm most excited by the reaction of the students at Yale," adds Dean Shaw. "It's a great shot in the arm, especially at the beginning of the school year. A lot of them are calling their friends and saying, 'I sure made the right choice.'"
The U.S. News ranking is also "a great, free recruitment tool," says the Dean. "It will make high school students and their families think about Yale and about why it's continuously at the top of the list." The magazine will publish the rankings in its "America's Best Colleges" guidebook and on the World Wide Web, bringing the information "to the far reaches of the earth," notes Dean Shaw. In fact, the survey results may have the most impact among international students "who do not have many sources of information about U.S. colleges and universities," he says.
Like many others, Dean Shaw points with caution to the "subjective" nature of the U.S. News rankings, as well as the fact that the top contenders are separated by "mere 10ths of a point."
Yale, as this year's leading institution, was awarded a "perfect" overall score of 100; Princeton, in the number-two spot, was given a total of 99.8; and Harvard, in third place, received 99.6. Fully 25 percent of an institution's final "score" is based on its academic reputation, as assessed by a survey of the nation's college presidents, deans and admissions officers. Other "attributes of academic quality" considered include the schools' selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, retention rate and alumni giving. This year, the magazine also introduced a new category, "value added," comparing predicted to actual graduation rates.
"Any of the schools that are at or near the top of the list are really, in a sense, equally superb," President Richard C. Levin told CNN in a Sept. 8 interview about the U.S. News survey. "If you look at the numerical scores, Yale, Harvard and Princeton have been in the top three every year for the 10 years U.S. News has been doing these rankings."
Asked why Yale deserved the number-one spot, President Levin replied: "I think we have an unusual amount of attention spent on undergraduates at Yale. Among the group of universities, it also has excellent research and abundant resources that are available to undergraduates."
He also noted that the three top-ranked institutions were among the nation's oldest universities and have large endowments. "What that translates to, what it means," said Mr. Levin, "is that generations of alumni have been giving money to the schools to support them, to build up the libraries, to build up their science laboratories, to endow professorships, to endow financial aid to make it possible for people to come. All of this translates into a high- quality experience."
According to Eustace D. Theodore, executive director of the Association of Yale Alumni, the University's graduates have reacted to the news of the first-place ranking thus far with subdued pride. "Certainly no one has written to say that now we've exhibited dominance," he says. "On the other hand, everyone is delighted to take the pats on the back that are coming from their law partners, fellow doctors and business colleagues."
-- By LuAnn Bishop