Pitzer College has risen 24 spots in the U.S. News and World Report rankings over the past nine years. The college is up from 70th in the nation in 2002 to 46th in 2011.

The increase, according to the college’s Office of Public Relations, is “the greatest by any college or university” in the country.

These rankings play a large role in shaping public perception of colleges, but Director of Admission Angel Perez said higher visibility can be a double-edged sword.

“It’s great that we can be more selective and there’s more students who found out about Pitzer,” he said, adding that Pitzer’s acceptance rate has declined over the last 10 years from 70 percent to 25 percent last year.

On the other hand, Perez said, publicity can have its drawbacks, since it attracts the kind of students who apply to Pitzer simply because it is highly ranked, rather than because they believe it will be a good fit for them.

“The piece about it that’s difficult is that, if you really break down U.S. News and World Report, it won’t give you any information about whether you’d be a good fit for the college culturally, socially, or academically,” Perez said. “People need to use more than just U.S. News and World Report to choose colleges.”

Perez also expressed ambivalence about the quality of the report’s rankings, noting that higher ranks often lead to a “self-perpetuating cycle of application increases.” As a school becomes more highly ranked, more students learn about it and apply to it. This allows the school to become more selective. Since selectivity is one of the aspects U.S. News and World Report considers when ranking a college, this increase in rank can create a feedback loop.

“We have built a system of higher education in this country that is built upon U.S. News and World Report,” Perez said. “Colleges are trying to increase their reputation in ways that matter to the formula.”

U.S. News and World Report makes use of 16 factors when calculating a college’s place in its annual ranking. These factors fall into the broad categories of academic reputation, selectivity, faculty resources, graduation rate, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rate performance.

Other systems of ranking may use widely varying criteria. For example, Forbes magazine considers the number of alumni in leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies as a measure of a college’s success.

Perez said that Pitzer has stayed true to its principles despite the upswing in rank and applications. Pitzer’s admissions staff takes into account whether an applicant exemplifies the college’s four core values: academic excellence, social responsibility, community diversity, and intercultural understanding.

“Overall, I don’t think anyone at Pitzer would say our goals are to succumb to the formula,” he said. “I think we pride ourselves on that.”

He added that increased visibility has also had positive consequences.

“Our goal is to have enough students apply so that we have enough to choose from in terms of finding students that embody the values of the college,” Perez said. “That’s one of the positive points of being selective, so that you can really shape your student body.”

Another benefit of Pitzer’s rise through the ranks is the college’s increased popularity among employers.

“Our alumni are the ones who benefit the most from this,” said Jeffrey Lewis, Director of Institutional Research and Advancement, the office that compiles the statistics for U.S. News and World Report at Pitzer.

When asked to speculate on what had caused Pitzer’s climb through the ranks, Perez listed several factors. The first of these was Pitzer’s reputation among high school guidance counselor.

“We in the Admission Office, we work really hard to develop good relations with high school guidance counselors,” Perez said. “We spend a lot of time informing the high school counseling community about the uniqueness of Pitzer … that really goes a long way with high school counselors.”

Pitzer’s admissions staff courts high school guidance counselors by visiting high schools around the country and distributing newsletters. It also participates in Decemberfest, which allows counselors to tour Whittier College, Caltech, Occidental College, University of Redlands, and the 5Cs.

Pitzer has also improved its score for academic reputation. This is simply a measure of how highly other colleges’ guidance counselors think of Pitzer’s academics, and thus is largely a matter of perception, Perez said.

Despite Pitzer’s rise in the rankings some things remain the same, Perez said.

“We haven’t changed the way we recruit students,” he said. “We still are very keen on finding students that are a good fit for Pitzer, that believe in our values.”

Shannon Julius PZ ’14 said her decision to attend Pitzer wasn’t greatly influenced by the college’s rank.

“To me, the rankings weren’t really important,” she said, adding that she cared more about Pitzer’s small size and general atmosphere, as well as the resources of the 5Cs.