Are you happy? How happy?

Every year the Princeton Review ranks colleges and universities nationwide on 62 different lists – such as “Most Beautiful Campus,” “Best Professors” or “Biggest Jock School” – but one list gets at what most people really want to know: Who’s the happiest?

Brown University, Clemson University and Claremont McKenna College top the ”Happiest Students” list, but UGA was nowhere to be found in the top 20.

Kelly Case-Simonson, a counselor for the University Health Center, said this seeming lack of exuberance on campus is not likely an administrative problem. She said many factors contributing to depression are “universal in nature.”

“The environment at UGA may be contributing to depressive symptoms in some students in that it is a high- stress academic environment and it is so big that some students struggle to find their footing, their place, identity here and end up feeling lonely and sad,” Case-Simonson said. “In addition, college is often a time of great transition in relationships – with parents/caretakers, peers and romantic relationships. As students are figuring out who they are and what they want, their relationships may change and may vary in quality and quantity which could trigger feelings of depression.”

Laura Braswell, editor for the Princeton Review, said a number of factors other than depression are considered when ranking the nation’s happiest college students.

Every year, the Princeton Review polls 100,000 students from 371 different colleges and universities on the quality of life they experience at their particular institution.

“After each survey, we give students a chance to look at last year’s rankings, and from that we have about an 81 percent accuracy,” Braswell said. “All of our rankings are from student opinions – the administration is sometimes involved in the ratings, but the rankings are done by students.”

UGA managed to make it to the top 10 on the “Best Food,” “Party School” and “Best Value Public School” lists, and also scored 85 percent on the Princeton Review’s Quality of Life grading.

Braswell said the “Happiest Students” list remains fairly static over the years – colleges in top 20 one year tend to stay in the top 20 with minimal shifting for several years.

“We’ve done this 17 years, and as far as the list goes they tend to stay pretty close. Universities won’t change that much year-to-year. Universities are big places. Every year you’re only really trading out a quarter of that population, and students are attracted to a particular place because they visit and feel it’s a good fit,” Braswell said.

Emily Gilbert, a second year master’s student from Lubbock, Texas, said she thinks the score of 85 accurately reflects the high quality of life Bulldogs enjoy at UGA.

“Students seem to have it pretty good here. They’re kind of spoiled – I don’t think they even realize how spoiled they are,” she said.