Dartmouth food may still be great, but apparently the campus isn't as beautiful as it used to be. Princeton Review released its highly-touted "The Best 357 Colleges Book" Tuesday, including its annual college rankings, with Dartmouth sliding in many important categories. Nonetheless, Dartmouth remains the leader in the Ivy League in the number of categories in which it is highly-ranked with seven.
After appearing in the top 20 in ten different categories last year -- eight of which were top-10 appearances -- the College slipped in this year's rankings, even falling completely off three lists and only garnering three top-10 rankings.
Dartmouth is still ranked fifth, according to Princeton Review, for happiest students (down from third last year), sixth for great food (the same as last year) and ninth for best quality of life (fourth last year).
After being named the ninth most beautiful campus, and recognized for having the 17th best dorms, as well as the 20th best overall academic experience for undergraduates, Dartmouth no longer appears on any of those lists in the 2005 edition.
According to the book's senior editor Erik Olson, the across-the-board drop-off could be the result of less favorable rankings from Dartmouth students or increases in the number of favorable rankings given at other schools.
Of the 64 categories on which schools are evaluated, 60 of the rankings are based entirely on feedback from current students at each of the 357 schools. Over 110,000 students participated in the Princeton Review survey that was used for the rankings, which includes 70 questions ranging from subjects covering academics and the administration to student life.
"When schools appear on any rankings list it reflects a high consensus among the students at the school about that particular aspect of the campus," Olson said.
Dartmouth also ranked 15th toughest to get into (ninth last year), 11th best college library (fourth last year), 11th for lots of beer (fifth last year) and 15th for major fraternity and sorority scene (tenth last year).
Despite dropping in nearly every category, Dartmouth remains ahead of its peers in the sheer number of categories in which it is ranked. Receiving top-20 nods in seven categories this year, Dartmouth topped all the other Ivies with the closest being Princeton with five nods. Every Ivy except for Cornell was ranked on the toughest to get into category, and none of the Elite Eight were ranked in any negative categories -- unless lots of beer is considered unbecoming of an Ivy League school.
According to the survey results, the University of Chicago has the best overall academic experience, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology was deemed the most difficult to get into and Pomona College in California has the happiest students overall. Wheaton College in Illinois cooks up the best campus food and Pepperdine University in California has the best living accommodations. The best professors can be found at Marlboro College in Vermont, while the most beautiful campus is that of Wagner College in New York.
The complete list of all 64 categories can be found on the Princeton Review website or in the book.
Six colleges are among the new additions to "The Best 357 Colleges" this year, including Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts. Olin " a fully endowed engineering school where students study tuition-free. Olin was ranked in 14 different categories, though six of those categories are about the lack of alcohol, drugs and sports.
