For the sixth year in a row, Yeshiva University has been ranked among America's top national universities in US News & World Report's annual college rankings. Yeshiva has also earned top tier honors in a University of Florida survey charting the same group of institutions.

The US News & World Report survey, published September 10, ranked Yeshiva up four places from last year's rankings. This year's finish at number forty-one is Yeshiva's highest mark since it first appeared in the rankings in the mid-nineteen nineties. With Princeton University grabbing top honors this year, Yeshiva shares its forty-first rung with four other institutions. Yeshiva counters its lowest academic reputation rank of the four with the highest financial resource rank of the bunch outstripping the University of California at Irvine by 18 spots in that category.

Concentrating on different data, The Center at the University of Florida also compiles a list of America's top research universities. The report, which was published in July, places Yeshiva twenty-fifth nationally among public and private institutions. The Center's ranking differ greatly from US News' in that The Center focuses heavily on research funding and scholarships and awards of faculty members. In these categories Yeshiva broke even, ranking out of the top fifty in all categories except for postdoctoral national ranking where it shone as number 23, and in endowment assets, where its financial resources were reported as 775 million dollars in 2000.

"Clearly we are not surprised," remarked Michael Kranzler, Yeshiva Director of Admissions, when asked about the US News ranking. "Given the caliber of the students we have been attracting over the past few years, it isn't any wonder that we continue to rise in the rankings." Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Morton Lowengrub seemed to be the only university official aware of the University of Florida ranking. "The Florida ranking focuses on research, grants and faculty awards, and in this way it is an accurate depiction of a university's reputation in the academic world," he explained.

When asked if he felt that Yeshiva's Albert Einstein College of Medicine was primarily responsible for Yeshiva's high rankings in The Center's report, Lowengrub responded, "Surely our medical school plays a significant role in this ranking, but so does every other university's." Regardless of methodology and accuracy, "the US News & World Report survey is what prospective students use to judge school's independently," said Kranzler. However Lowengrub was quick to urge that, "the ranking represent people's perceptions and they do not reflect the whole story.

There seemed to be some disagreement among administrators as to what specific components of Yeshiva were responsible for the school's jump in the US News rankings. While many pinned the university's relative success to Einstein's continued growth, expansion and procurement of federal research funds, others disagreed. Yeshiva College Dean Norman Adler insisted that the bulk of the ranking relied on categories that focused on the undergraduate education.

University Director of Public Affairs, Peter L. Ferrara echoed Adler's sentiments explaining that there are specific categories in the rankings that come straight from undergraduate records and performance. Aside from financials and a seemingly arbitrarily assigned "Reputation Ranking" that reflects graduates ability to get jobs after receiving their degrees, the survey includes rankings of average SAT scores of students and the admissions acceptance rate. When considering average SAT scores 1130-1330, Yeshiva drops in the rankings to number forty-two. Using the acceptance percentage, Yeshiva falls to dead last in the top tier. Yeshiva's freshman retention rate of 84% also is lowest of the top-tier. However, Yeshiva's graduation rate is the 19th best in the nation. While these numbers seem to point to abysmal ratings, Yeshiva's saving grace is its high graduation rate. Our financial resources, which place us at nineteen, contribute to Yeshiva's success as well, as they easily eclipse those of Georgetown, NYU and Brandeis.

Perhaps the most shocking element of the US News rankings is a portion of the survey that does not appear directly on the graph but rather appears in a section reserved for additional information about a specific institution. According to US News, only 11% of Yeshiva's incoming freshmen have their financial needs met. This woeful testament to Yeshiva's financial aid and student finances department compares feebly with most institutions in the ranking that boast an 80% need met or higher.

"Other than the fact that Yeshiva University calls itself the home of Torah U'Madda and lists itself as devoid of a religious affiliation, the fact that there is no financial support from a school claiming to represent the Jewish community is the worst news I read in the magazine," bemoaned a disheartened junior.