The Amherst administration reacted to the news with reserve, questioning the validity and worth of the much-hyped rankings.
"Viscerally, I feel we're the best, though I'm sure Swarthmore would say the same thing," said Dean of Students Ben Lieber. "There's been concern in the academic world over the false precision endemic in this ranking system since its inception; the notion that colleges and universities change tangibly over one year is ludicrous."
Swarthmore officials' reaction focused simultaneously on the benefits the ranking provides to its recruitment process and doubt in regard to the usefulness of the rankings.
"If rankings exist, it's great to be number one; it makes us more visible, and we expect about 100 more applications in years where we occupy the top spot," said Swarthmore admissions counselor Sam Prouty. "But college is a community of students, not an easily rankable commodity, so we don't play our ranking up too much, or see it as too important."
Ivy League colleges dominated the national university rankings, with Princeton, Harvard and Yale Universities taking the first, second and third spots, respectively. The California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished in fourth and fifth place.
Fellow Five College institutions Smith College (#14) and Mt. Holyoke College (#24) were again named among the country's top 25 liberal arts colleges. Hampshire College rose from the third tier to the second, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst tied for the 48th spot among public universities.
"I applied to Swarthmore and Amherst and got into both," said Allison Rung '05. "I didn't end up using rankings to make my decision; what made the difference was a visit to Swarthmore where people just didn't seem to be having a good time; people are happier at Amherst."
As hundreds of thousands of college applicants make the U.S. News special edition one of its best-selling issues, many people in the college community have voiced concerns over students basing their enrollment decisions on rankings alone and colleges making administrative decisions solely for the purpose of improving their standing in the rankings.
"Rankings are useful," said prospective Amherst applicant Jessica Rouge, a senior at Sachem High School in New York. "Everyone looks at them, whether they admit it or not; you want to know who's one-two-three, or in the top ten."
"I do find it disturbing that applicants place credence on rankings in a willy-nilly fashion, but, honestly, that is not so much of a problem in that they will get a great education at any of a number of schools," said Dean of New Students Frank Couvares. "But if any college adjusts any policies or allocations even a little, for the sake of the rankings, then real damage is being done to the educational mission of those colleges."
For many students, however, the primacy of other factors of the admissions process rendered the rankings relatively meaningless.
"After three years of residence here, I haven't seen anything (other than the endowment getting a lot of money) to justify moving up or down in the rankings," said David Reckess '02. "So if or when I go to graduate school, those rankings will not be a factor, just as these shouldn't be to prospective undergraduates."