The Washington Monthly 2007 College Guide ranks the University of Washington 14th among national colleges, beating out prominent colleges such as Johns Hopkins University and the California Institute of Technology, and ranked second only to Cornell when compared to Ivy League schools.

The top three national universities, according to the better-known US News & World Report, are held by Princeton, Harvard and Yale, with UW ranked 42. These top Ivy League institutions are ranked 27, 38 and 78, respectively, on the Monthly's list.

"The thing about ranking is that it really always depends on what people are using as their criteria to rank," Norm Arkans, UW director of media relations, said.

US News grading methods have been under attack for their ranking method, which includes measuring SAT/ACT scores, faculty salaries and alumni giving. The Washington Monthly and many others complain that these and other factors do not necessarily interpret into academic quality, leading 61 liberal arts colleges to withdraw their participation to the US News rankings.

The Washington Monthly's grading method is in response to the noted discontent. Its criteria judges how universities are "conducting the cutting-edge research that drives the economy, offering students from low-income families a path to a better life, and positively shaping the characters of the young people who will go on to lead the country."

The UW's high rank can be credited to its widely known emphasis on research, ranked second in the nation for dollar amount of research grants received, and the high number of Ph.D.'s awarded.

The Monthly's methodology produced, 16 public universities in their top 20. US New's top 20 has no public schools.

The Washington Monthly explains that this contradiction arises from US News giving irrelevant weight to test scores and the financial resources of the student base of those Ivy League schools. These same schools rate very low on the Washington Monthly report because of "extremely low social mobility and service scores," which may be attributed to some extent to the refusal of ROTC recruiters on certain campuses, since the service score factored military service as well.

"Throw [the Washington Monthly] criteria in, shake it up in a box and everyone comes out with a different ranking [than other accredited surveys]," Arkans said. "I don't know what to make of all this stuff. The University is, I think in all of these, where it should be — one of the top public research universities in America," Arkans said.

[Reach contributing writer William Kim at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]