Would you give Stanford an A+ for academics, a B- for the campus drug scene and an A+ for female student attractiveness?

That’s the report card for Stanford according to College Prowler, a website based on student rankings that rates universities. The rating metrics on the site are meant to answer the questions about a college that admission officials won’t necessarily tell you–how attractive the student body is, what the weather is like and how difficult the curriculum is.

As thousands of prospective college freshmen agonize over which institution of higher learning to commit themselves to, more and more students are turning to websites like College Prowler to make their decisions. But are these websites getting it right?

Some students, like Hayden Rodarte ’13, see the potential benefit ranking websites like College Prowler can provide. Rodarte believes that the fact that this website is student-based helps make it more focused on student and parent concerns.

“College Prowler is useful from a student’s perspective while one is considering schools,” Rodarte said. “It’s also helpful for parents who are clingy and want to know about the safety and health of schools.”

Even though they acknowledge the benefits of College Prowler for prospective students, many of the students highlight the shortcomings of the website.

“I don’t trust the social stuff, because it’s more subjective,” Rodarte said. “People are more likely to disagree about the level of attractiveness. I think the grades of guys/girls are stupid, but everything else is relevant.”

Sarah Sullivan ‘13 also questioned the legitimacy of the girl/guy rankings.

“I think the girl and guy category detracts from what would have been a site I could have taken seriously,” she said.

Some students claim that these grades are so subjective that truly understanding university life through these rankings is virtually impossible.

“I think the grade of facilities should be lower,” said Anh Thuy NguyenDang ’13. “Engineering is okay, but the Main Quad is not really that great. The language corner was flooded last month. Maybe an A-.”

Julie Lythcott-Haims, dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising, offered a solution for these somewhat misleading rankings.

“I’m guessing that the people who post are the very happy and the very unhappy and not the vast middle,” Lythcott-Haims wrote in an email to The Daily. “I’d like to see a system that gives you a word cloud evaluating the frequency of things said about the institution. It might be easier to discern the vibe of the place that way.”

The Stanford administration does not publicly acknowledge these rankings, or any other for that matter.

“Stanford does participate in major rankings, such as U.S. News and Princeton Review by providing standard information…but generally, the University does not comment on rankings nor [does it] proactively publicize its rankings,” said Lisa Lapin, assistant vice president for university communications.

Stanford also limits the importance of rankings by encouraging prospective students to not look solely at these rankings when deciding which college to attend.

“The position of Stanford University relative to rankings is that there are many factors that prospective students should consider when selecting a university that is the best fit for them, well beyond a number in a ranking that is determined by often wide-ranging and variable statistics,” Lapin said.

Lythcott-Haims echoed Lapin’s criticism of rankings as a way to understand any university, especially Stanford.

“In the end, doesn’t a person have to be here and see for themselves whether it’s the place for them?” Lythcott-Haims said.

That approach worked for Joseph Victor ’13, who largely dismissed the rankings.

“I heard enough good things about Stanford not to give much thought to these rankings.”

NguyenDang similarly did not examine rankings when she made her decision to attend Stanford.

“I just looked at the major I was interested in,” NguyenDang said. “I chose Stanford because it offered a great chemical engineering program.”

“A better way to become more familiar with the school is actually speaking in depth with students of that school,” said Vanessa Shiu ’11.