U.S. News and World Report's annual list of the best colleges and universities awarded Brandeis a rank of 34 after placing the University 32nd for two consecutive years and 31st three years ago.The magazine bases its rankings on numerical representations of admissions selectivity, faculty resources, graduation and retention rates, financial resources, alumni giving rates, and other factors.

U.S. News also uses "peer assessments," which make up the most heavily weighted individual component of the rankings, and are what caused Brandeis' overall ranking to drop. Brandeis received a score of 3.5 out of 5 from peer assessments that were derived from surveys that U.S. News sends to 120 colleges and universities, asking administrators to give their opinion of the overall academic quality of each of the other schools.

Peer assessments account for 25 percent of a school's overall score, while other categories count for no more than 20 percent.

The assessments are the only component of the rankings that are not based on hard data, making them slightly controversial. According to Sam Flanigan, the deputy director of data research for U.S News, their purpose is to make sure nothing gets overlooked.

"It allows for a few intangibles," Flanigan said. "It allows someone to say 'I know good things about this school that may not be reflected in the data.'" Flanigan also pointed out that if an administrator is unfamiliar with a school, he or she may mark "don't know."

Brandeis is not the only school that lost ground in the peer review score. Forty-one other institutions also received a lower score from the previous year. Just six schools received better scores, while the rest remained the same.

Sarah Parrott, the director of research and planning for enrollment services at Brandeis, said she doesn't believe in the validity of the U.S. News rankings.

"I don't think [the rankings] are reflective of reality," Parrott said, echoing the sentiments of administrators who have reflected on previous years' rankings. "This is essentially a popularity contest. This is what U.S. News calls their 'swimsuit issue' .... This is a money-maker and it's at the expense of the colleges and universities."

Parrott said she believes that even though many high school students take the U.S. News rankings very seriously, a drop of two spots will not have a significant impact on the number of applications Brandeis receives next year.

"Colleges and universities are much more affected by having a sports team make it to the top in football or basketball," she said. "Sports teams have a much greater effect on application rates, at least at the Division I level."

The sentiments of at least some Brandeis first-years indicate that the U.S. News rankings were not a significant component of their decision to attend the University.

"I think some people spend too much time worrying about how their college is ranked," Katie Nadworny '09 said. "Everyone wants something different, and one person's number one school might not be another's," she said.

While U.S. News' Flanigan wrote that the magazine's rankings are an accurate reflection of the overall academic quality of the 120 schools ranked, he did not contend that they are the end-all, be-all for college selection.

"We think [the rankings] are one piece of information to consider," he said. "We have never suggested that people look only at the U.S. News rankings. There is a lot of information in the table and in the directory that gives [students] a lot of important information to base the decision on.