According to the Global Language Monitor, an Austin-based company of language-trend analysts, Yale dropped from ninth place to 11th place in the rankings of universities in the country on the basis of its “media image.” (Harvard clinched the third-place spot, though last year it was first.)

From the Reuters article on the study, “Harvard brand takes a hit in tough times”:

Tough economic times have hurt Harvard University’s public standing in the media over the past nine months, while schools perceived as a safer educational investment have benefited, a research firm said.

Global Language Monitor, which ranks colleges and universities based on their appearances in print and other media, said the venerable Ivy League institution has fallen from first to third behind University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The firm said it recorded a 20 percent decline in media representations of Harvard, America’s richest university by endowment, which has allowed some technical schools and state-run “public Ivies” to improve their standing …

Yale, the country’s second-richest University, said its endowment shrank 30 percent to $16 billion in the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The New Haven, Connecticut-based school is now facing deficits and cost-cutting measures. In the rankings, it fell to 11th from ninth.

Read the full Reuters article here. Read the Harvard Crimson’s article about the rankings here.