How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
NYU's moving on up — this year, the university is No. 32 on the U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of national universities, marking a one-point increase from last year's listing.
The list — America's Best Colleges 2010 — was compiled based on several measures of academic quality, including student selectivity, graduation and retention rates, alumni giving and class size, according to U.S. News. Each indicator is assigned a percentage weight, which makes up a composite weighted score that is then used to rank each college.
Harvard and Princeton universities tied for the top spot. The Stern School of Business retained its previous fifth-place ranking on the list of best undergraduate business programs.
Also, for the first time, the organization included the category "Best Undergraduate Teaching," with Dartmouth College topping the list.
University spokesman James Devitt dismissed the significance of the rankings.
"These rankings are a good tool for selling magazines, but they're not necessarily a great device for choosing a university," he said.
Devitt said applicants should take into account issues such as programs and cost instead of national rankings when deciding where to attend college.
He declined to comment on NYU's slight increase in rankings this year, but said that when considering NYU's standing among universities, he prefers to focus on factors such as the number of applicants. This past year, 36,944 students sought admission to the class of 2013 — a record high.
Some NYU undergraduates are concerned about these rankings.
"I worked hard in high school, not just to go to a college that any student could get into," Stern sophomore Renita Persaud said.
CAS senior Richard Tsay said he is pleased about the university's higher place on the list this year.
"People probably haven't been giving NYU enough credit in past years," he said. "Ultimately, I'd like to see that number get higher."
