Prevalent stereotypes about how Harvard undergraduates have less fun than their peers found empirical confirmation Tuesday, when the Boston Globe reported that Harvard students gave lower ratings to their college experience than students at other elite schools in a 2002 survey.

An internal Harvard memo analyzing data from the survey found that Harvard students rated their overall satisfaction at 3.95 on a five-point scale, compared to an average of 4.16 at the 30 other schools surveyed, the Globe reported on Tuesday. Harvard students gave lower ratings than peers to the level of interaction with faculty members and the quality of social life.

This satisfaction rating placed Harvard fifth from the bottom in the survey of the 31 colleges comprising the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE). The COFHE includes all eight Ivy League schools, other top research universities like MIT and Stanford University, and leading small liberal arts colleges like Amherst College and Williams College.

Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 said the issues raised by the data guided his priorities when he first assumed his post in July 2003.

“That’s exactly what we’ve been focusing on for the past three years,” he wrote in an e-mail.

According to the survey, Harvard averaged a 2.62 for its campus social life, compared to 2.89 across other schools, and netted a 2.53 for its sense of community, compared to 2.8 at other COFHE institutions, the Globe reported.

Gross noted that, in response to concerns about social life, administrators have taken steps such as expanding student activity space and extending party hours to 2 a.m.

Last fall, the College named Zachary A Corker ’04 to a newly-created position—special assistant to the dean for social programming—in an effort to expand campus-wide social opportunities. Corker has worked to coordinate events including the Harvard-Yale tailgate, two dodgeball tournaments, and a series of Loker Pub Nights.

Corker could not be reached for comment. Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II, who oversees student life, declined to comment.

Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker said he was surprised that students were unhappy with the social opportunities on campus when compared to peer institutions, especially given the thriving social scene in Boston.

“My impression is that the residential houses at Harvard are intended to provide some of the social opportunities that elsewhere would be provided college-wide,” Pinker wrote in an e-mail. “The intense student life of Boston, with its eight major universities and lively bar and music scene, should, I would think, obviate some of the need for students to get their social and cultural needs met on the Harvard campus.”

And while Adams House Committee Chair Connie Zong ’06 credited the administration with taking significant strides to improve student social life, she also attributed the possible differences between Harvard and other institutions to the level of student initiative at Harvard.

“We’re all really busy, and it takes a lot of time to work through the bureaucratic red tape of both the school and the city to organize any large social event,” she wrote in an e-mail.

The data, the most recent available for comparison, was outlined in a memo sent from Harvard researchers to deans that was dated Oct. 2004 and marked “confidential,” according to the Globe. The memo noted that the difference in student satisfaction ratings between Harvard and other institutions is not new phenomena—it has existed since at least 1994.

The poll analysis indicated that Harvard also fell behind other schools by a small margin in faculty availability, quality of instruction, and quality of advising, the Globe reported.