(AP) -- The University of Chicago boasts more than 70 Nobel laureates, and its math and economics departments are among the best in the world.
But for years, the prestigious school apparently didn't have an accurate count of its faculty, number of classes or educational spending.
That's the explanation the university gave for why it changed some of the figures it reports to U.S. News & World Report for the magazine's "America's Best Colleges" guide. Partly because of those changes, Chicago jumps from No. 15 to ninth in this year's ranking, which hits newsstands Monday. Schools rarely move more than two or three places from year to year.
Princeton is ranked No. 1, and Williams College is named the top liberal arts college.
The magazine says it was surprised to learn a university as prominent as Chicago hadn't kept better track of its data -- the school was keeping some records by hand -- and that it failed to put its best foot forward for the closely watched rankings. But the magazine accepted the changes.
Chicago was in the U.S. News top 10 five years ago, but its rank had been sliding since then. School officials acknowledge the drop prompted them to review their data -- and they concluded Chicago was selling itself short.
"We just were too casual about it," said Michael Behnke, vice president for university relations and dean of college enrollment. "I'm kind of embarrassed we didn't catch it before."
Critics of college rankings contend such lists are not only misleading but unreliable, because the magazine counts on schools to self-report many of the underlying figures.
"There's no way to verify these figures are reliable and they can be easily laundered," said Lloyd Thacker, executive director of the Education Conservancy.
Thacker said he wasn't speaking specifically of Chicago -- whose admissions dean, Ted O'Neill, is also a prominent critic of rankings. But, he said, "Is there a temptation to do that when the stakes are so high? Hell, yes. Are academics above that? Hell, no."
Increases in key categories
In February, three top Chicago administrators flew to Washington to talk to U.S. News executives. This year, the magazine says, Chicago allocated an additional $39 million in library expenses to a category of educational spending it submits to both the federal government and the magazine. The figure is part of the magazine's "financial resources" rank, and Chicago rose from No. 18 to No. 10.
Chicago also concluded that different sections of its writing program should count as separate courses, even though they were not recorded that way in the university's antiquated registration system. The change increased the percentage of classes Chicago reported as enrolling 20 or fewer students -- another boost.
The university also stopped including alumni it could no longer find when calculating the percentage of graduates who give money.
Some changes actually worked against the school. A new definition of faculty nearly doubled the student-faculty ratio, and Chicago reported a lower percentage of faculty who are full time. But each of those categories contributes just 1 percent to the rankings formula.
Chicago's rank in a key category, peer assessment by other schools, rose this year with no change in how it is reported. Its graduation rate also increased with no changes.
"I really think their rise is legitimate," said Brian Kelly, the magazine's executive editor. Chicago is well-regarded, but its intellectual atmosphere makes for a self-selecting applicant pool and a 40 percent acceptance rate. That's much higher than peers, which weighs down its ranking.
"When I eyeball the rankings it has always struck me that (Chicago) is undervalued," Kelly said. "It was just an interesting coincidence to have them come in and say, 'We don't think we're doing this right."'
The magazine believes the university has been honest, he said.
Behnke, who says he's no fan of rankings, said he recently spoke to a provost at another institution who was capping class sizes at 19 to boost the "Classes Under 20" number.
"That I call playing with the numbers," he said. "We actually found we weren't reflecting reality."
Jim Sumner, dean of admission at Grinnell College in Iowa, who has written about number-fudging by colleges, says the magazine's system is better than it used to be but still vulnerable to manipulation.
As for Chicago, "What it says to me is they're going to have a nice jump in applications this next year."