For the third year in a row, Penn has climbed the charts of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings -- this time landing at No. 4 on the annual survey.
According to the magazine's Web site, Penn shares the spot with the California Institute of Technology, Duke and Stanford universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The rankings will be published in the magazine's forthcoming "2003 Top Colleges" issue.
In 2001, Penn placed sixth in the rankings and earned the No. 5 spot last year.
The Wharton School is rated the top undergraduate business school in the country in this year's rankings. Penn's Engineering School is tied with six other universities for 37th place.
University spokeswoman Lori Doyle said she was delighted to see the University reach fourth place, although Penn does not put much emphasis on the rankings.
"We recognize that prospective students and their parents follow [the rankings] closely, and for that reason we do pay attention to them," Doyle explained.
Also for the third straight year, Princeton University holds the top spot on the rankings by itself. Harvard and Yale universities are again tied for second.
Dartmouth College remained in ninth place, while Columbia University dropped one spot to tenth, sharing the spot with Northwestern University.
Cornell University is in 14th place and Brown University fell to 17th, behind Johns Hopkins and Rice universities.
U.S. News bases its rankings on many factors, including freshman retention and graduation rates, faculty resources and student-to-faculty ratios.
After compiling statistics on the various universities, each school is given an overall score out of 100.
Penn jumped two points from last year, earning an overall score of 97 points.
"We attribute [the rise] to a combination of things, including the high quality of faculty and high caliber of students," Doyle said.
Penn earned first place in faculty resources and has the third-highest percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students of any school in its category.
Penn dropped to 12th place, however, in percentage of enrolled students who actually matriculate from the University.
Doyle said she believes the recent construction around campus and avid recruitment tactics also helped Penn reach its highest rank to date.
"The improvement of the physical campus, our ability to attract highest caliber students certainly helped us," she said.
US News' annual release of these rankings has gained more attention in recent years, especially from prospective students on the college search. The rankings include statistics on selectivity and average SAT scores, a category that draws interest from many applicants and their parents.
Doyle said that rankings are not a major concern of the University.
"Our goal is not to improve in the rankings," said Doyle, adding, "they are an indication of the success of our long-term strategic plans."
