When it comes to media spotlight, Penn is near - but not quite at - the top.

Penn is number 11 in a new ranking by the Global Language Monitor that rated 4,000 American colleges and universities according to their popularity in the media.

Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities all cracked the top 10.

Global Language Monitor - a company that looks at the way words and language affect culture - used search engines, surveys and other statistical analyses to measure colleges' appearances in global print and electronic media, taking the Internet and blogosphere into consideration.

The survey differentiated between colleges and universities.

"I think the media certainly makes a difference in Penn's visibility," University President Amy Gutmann said. She added, however, that the "media is just one of many ways to communicate about Penn, and it's certainly not the main way we would measure ourself."

When compared with the thousands of other colleges and universities, Penn's standing in the media isn't too shabby.

"The top 50 are about equal in prestige," said Paul Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor and its chief word analyst.

"It is a top brand," he said of Penn, noting Wharton and the other undergraduate and graduate programs.

The difference between scores for the top universities was not very large.

Harvard, the school most-mentioned in the media according to the survey, had a raw score of 2,000, according to Payack.

Penn, at 11th, had 1,500. Another 500 points behind Penn was the University of North Carolina, which ranked 29th with a raw score of 1,000.

In that light, Payack suggests that Penn keep "doing what it's been doing."

Michele Hernandez, president of Hernandez College Consulting, said the type of media, rather than the amount of publicity in general, makes a key difference.

"One top ranking in U.S. News reaches more people and counts more than 100 mentions in minor journals," she said.

Hernandez, as well as Global Language Monitor officials, say Penn has nothing to worry about, noting that a ranking outside the top 10 will not likely have negative consequences.

If Penn does want to improve its presence in the media, Payack said, more improvements in West Philadelphia could attract attention and help the University.