Princeton Review rankings generate discussion

Abercrombie and Fitch. Jocks. Beer. Booze. This fall, the Princeton Review released its annual rankings of the top colleges in the United States, and Providence College has garnered a distinct reputation as a preppy "party school" where alcohol flows like water, athletes rule the school, and students are cookie-cutter copies of one another.

Providence College's ranked second for "Lots of Beer" and ninth for "Lots of Hard Liquor," as well as fourth in "Homogeneous Student Population."

Many at Providence College have been left wondering if some of the rankings the College has received are scientifically accurate. The Princeton Review does not disclose to the public the exact process it uses to obtain these rankings, causing many critics of the system to worry that colleges are receiving inaccurate reputations.

While this system may sound like a foolproof way of getting prospective college students reliable information, some say it is far from it.

According to Ed Caron, vice president of college relations and planning at Providence College, the main problem with the Princeton Review system is that it does not release information about how it calculates its rankings or how many student surveys its information is based on. The Princeton Review will only say that it aims to get online survey information from at least 10 percent of each school's student body, Caron said.

"The question remains: how many students actually gave us this dubious distinction?" Caron said. "Was it 500 or just five?"

Regardless of whether or not the rankings are an accurate representation of Providence College, Caron said that there is sufficient reason to doubt the Princeton Review and he has challenged the service publicly.

"If you are going to make these kind of assumptions about a school, you need to let the shoe drop," Caron said. "Their reluctance to tell us where the rankings are coming from is a big problem."

To determine the rankings, The Princeton Review compiles the information that it reports based on the previous three years of data collection that the company has done. This information is then made available in books and on the Princeton Review Web site.

The narrative information which currently appears in the printed guide and on the Web site only changes every three years, following an on-campus survey process. Providence College students were last surveyed on campus in the fall of 2003 and the next scheduled on-campus review is for the Fall of 2006. The results of this on-campus survey process will be compiled and printed in the 2008 Princeton Review Guide, which will be released in 2007.

The Princeton Review's ranking system has come under national scrutiny as well. Bryan Rourke of The Providence Journal recently wrote an article on the rankings of various colleges in Rhode Island, posing the question, "Do four respondents make a trend?"

Jennifer Adams, student survey manager for the Princeton Review, said that the rankings are made mostly of student- reported data with the occasional information thrown in that a school's administration provides them with.

"We never claim that we are a scientifically accurate survey," Adams said in a phone interview. "We also never claim that our rankings are qualitative. They are quantitative."

When asked why the Princeton Review doesn't release the number of students that take the surveys for each school or other information crucial to understanding the rankings, Adams said, "It's not public information."

Adams also added that everyone has different ideas about what constitutes a scientific survey and that even if the Princeton Review released more information about its ranking process, there would still be scrutiny about the process.

"There are different levels of what people believe to be accurate and what they don't," she said.

Books like the Princeton Review's publication The Best 361 Colleges, 2006 Edition sell for around $20 apiece.

Caron pointed out that along with informing students, the Princeton Review intends to make a generous profit off of the rankings. College ranking books are a multi-million dollar industry and companies like the Princeton Review know what sells, according to Caron.

"These materials have a major marketing capability and a huge distribution channel," he said. "They can really pack a punch with their messaging."

Patricia S. Viera, executive director for media and community relations at the College, agrees with the idea that companies are seeing peer-to-peer college advice as a lucrative market.

"Students love rankings," Viera said. "It can make decision-making a lot easier for prospective students, but they should know that their decisions are not being supported by scientific data."

Viera suggested the students turn toward U.S. News and World Report as a more reputable source for college rankings information.

"They have a fine-tuned formula and a very specific methodology," she said. "They devote two entire pages at the beginning of their guide to explain in detail how they arrive at their numbers."

She also noted the reliability of The Vault, an independent college-ranking Web site. The site gives college administrators the change to correct any factual misapprehensions in the school's profile before the information is published.

PC students have reacted strongly to the Princeton Review rankings since they have been released. Caron spoke to a meeting of Student Congress in September after they voiced their concerns about the effects the ratings could potentially have on Providence College.

"It's going to be up to the student body to be proactive about this matter," Caron said. "If students think they are accurate, they can do nothing. But if they disagree with them, they should do something. The protest of the administration does no good."