Georgetown University showed no improvement in the most recent rankings by a popular national college guide, earning lower marks in several categories than in previous years and remaining stagnant in others.

The 2003 edition of Princeton Review’s “The Best 345 Colleges” ranked the Georgetown the 19th “Toughest College to Get Into” and the fourth “Most Politically Active” campus in the country according to this year’s rankings, which compiled survey data received from over 100,000 students at 345 U.S. colleges and universities. However, Georgetown fell from second to tenth in “Classroom Discussion Encouraged” and Washington slid from the number one position in the rankings of “Great College Towns” to fourth.

Each of the lists displays the top 20 schools for each category. Though Georgetown was included on last year’s lists for “Most Beautiful Campus” and “Best Quality of Life,” the university failed to appear on these or any of the book’s 60 other lists this year.

The Princeton Review has been compiling the survey data since 1992 to give prospective college students information about academic and social conditions at colleges and universities across the country.

The number of students surveyed for the rankings increased by over 30,000 for this year’s rankings. Princeton Review publicist Jeanne Krier said this is the result of the company’s increased promotion of their online surveys, which it has been using since last year. “A lot more students have begun to submit surveys over the internet,” Krier said.

The online survey offers “staggering reach and eliminates the red tape and workload [of paper surveys,]” Princeton Review editor Erik Olson (COL ’00) said. “We worked very hard this year to encourage administrators and students to use the online survey.”

Olson and Krier said that the results of the survey are a comparison of the range of student responses received from the schools surveyed, but inclusion in the rankings reflects a degree of respect in itself. “Any school included in the book, in Princeton Review’s mind, is one of the best in the nation,” Krier said.

Despite the changes in university’s rankings, Georgetown’s individual profile in the book states that, “most [students] agree that the benefits of a Georgetown education make up for the drawbacks many times over.” The profile also includes praise of the university’s adjunct faculty and the opportunities presented by the school’s location in Washington.