The University of Wisconsin slipped this year in an annual national education ranking by U.S. News and World Report.

U.S. News & World Report released its annual ranking of "America's Best Colleges" late this summer, placing UW 38th overall nationally, tied with the University of California-San Diego and the University of Illinois.

The 2008 ranking was down four positions overall, though, from the previous year, and UW was also ranked eighth Best Public National University.

The UW administration does not place particular relevancy on the rankings, according to Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science.

However, he said the rankings should not be ignored due to the attention they receive from students and parents.

"We don't really believe that it's possible to capture in a single number how our university compares to other universities," Sandefur said. "We don't have much confidence in rankings, but we know others do."

Sandefur also said varying opportunities makes it difficult to create an all-encompassing ranking.

"They are very misleading," Sandefur said. "If you went to the best, highest ranked university — Princeton — you would not necessarily get a better education than at UW."
Still, Sandefur said being included in the rankings alone demonstrates the quality of an education at UW.

"We're certainly one of the top, and we're one of the best universities in the U.S.," he said. "There are thousands of universities, so in a sense they illustrate what a high quality institution UW is."

UW Associate Director of Admissions Tom Reason agreed, and noted that rankings are one of many tools to help students decide which university to intend.

"They matter because it is one bit of information about one perspective of higher education," Reason said. "But they matter minimally because it's one small element about how you make the decision about where you go to college."

Mike Knetter, dean of the UW School of Business, which was ranked 12th overall in the nation, said in a statement that the rankings are a way to examine how the school is performing as compared to other schools.

"Rankings are a relative measurement of how we compare to other business schools along certain dimensions," Knetter said in the statement. "Our focus is on attracting great students, providing an exceptional educational experience and generating great career opportunities."

UW was also 13th in engineering, third in insurance and risk management and second in real estate.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the rankings are decided by collecting "data on up to 15 indicators of academic quality" and then ranking the schools "”within categories by their total weighted score."

The top four ranked schools were Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University and Stanford University. The California Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania tied for fifth.

UW tied with Illinois as the third-best Big Ten school, behind 14th-ranked Northwestern University and the 25th-ranked University of Michigan.

Regardless of the rankings, Sandefur said choosing the right college ultimately comes down to "what people want from their undergraduate experience."