In May, the members of the Class of 2003 signed on to attend the top-ranked school in the country. Now, according to America's best-known college ranking system, they're going to number two.

In its annual college guide, released last month, U.S. News & World Report ranked Harvard second in its list of top universities, with a score of 93. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) came out on top with a 100.

At last night's Opening Exercises in Tercentenary Theatre, those Harvard first-years who knew about the new rankings seemed unfazed by the change in Harvard's position.

"[The rankings] didn't really concern me....There's a lot of arbitrary things that go into those rankings," said Robert B. Willison '03. "Caltech is such a different school from Harvard, it's hard to think of them in the same category."

According to Harvard Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73, prospective students and their parents seem unconcerned by the rankings change. She said she did not expect the change to affect the number of students applying to Harvard.

Lewis said Harvard--which tied with Princeton for the top spot last year--has never drawn attention to its U.S. News rank.

"When we've been number one, we've tried to downplay it," Lewis said. "We've always said that ordinal rankings are not as valuable as the wealth of information that U.S. News and other publications make available to students."

Caltech Provost Stephen E. Koonin said a numerical ranking system like the one used by U.S. News & World Report is not a comprehensive measurement of a college's worth.

"It's like using IQ as a measure of intelligence," he said. "It doesn't capture all the factors or all the dimensions of a school."