SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In the past five years, 66 students have died nationwide from fires in both on- and off-campus housing. The Princeton Review is known for scoring colleges and universities on everything from campus life to academics. Now, it is rating schools based on fire safety. A grade of 60-100 is based on a number of factors, including: Is housing equipped with fire sprinklers? Is there a fire alarm? Are students put through fire drills?

In the first year of the survey, not every school participated. So, KCRA-TV asked the University of California, Davis; California State University, Sacramento; and the University of the Pacific to fill out the survey.

University of the Pacific topped the list with a near perfect score of 94. UC Davis scored an 84. And CSU, Sacramento came in third with an 80, which is the equivalent of a student scoring a 50 on a final exam. "It obviously says there are additional things we could do. And with these older buildings, we've been trying to add additional steps," said CSU, Sacramento spokesman Frank Witlatch.

Witlatch said that none of its residence halls is equipped with fire sprinklers. "That wasn't the standard when these structures were built," Witlatch said. Fire code does not require sprinklers in old buildings. And a retrofit is expensive, according to the television station.

It was a similar story at UC Davis. About a quarter of its rooms have sprinklers, but that's in modern residence halls, not in barrack-style buildings that were built in the 50s.

"A vast majority of parents think the dorms (have sprinklers), and that is just not the case," said Center for Campus Fire Safety spokesman Ed Comeau.

Comeau said sprinklers are by far the best safety feature, but parents and students, when touring or choosing a school, should ask other questions as well.

"Do they have smoke alarms and smoke detectors in individual rooms? Are they connected to the fire alarm system?" Comeau said.

At CSU, Sacramento's Desmond Hall, the alarm system is hard-wired in the hallway. But in the rooms, smoke alarms are battery operated, making tampering easier. Student Chris Lott said there are regular fire drills and initial training. "They say you're not supposed to have candles, open flames. So, they did mention it," Lott said.

At the top of the list is University of the Pacific, which was the only school to have a significant fire in recent years. Grace Covell Hall burned three years ago. "It was caused by a candle. The student had lit a candle, and she went down the hall and returned to find her bed coverings were on fire," said UOP Director of Housing Steve Jacobson.

Jacobson said that as a result of that fire, fire safety on campus was revamped and improved.

"We look for candles, incense, stuff that we don't really allow, that's against our fire rules and our fire code," Jacobson said.

Half of Pacific's residence halls have sprinklers, and all fire alarms are hard wired with sirens in the rooms.

"It's easier to find a safe school that's a good one than a good school that is safe one," Comeau said.

Comeau said more schools are advertising fire safety, and he feels the new scoring system helps parents sort things out.

"It is a selling point for us because we want to make sure everyone knows our students are safe," Jacobson said.

CSU, Sacramento and UC Davis argued that their rooms are safe and that other safety features, beyond sprinklers, are in place, according to the television station. They also said that the scores of both schools will go up as they demolish older dorms in favor of new buildings with sprinklers -- a process that is already under way.

Statistically, on-campus housing is far safer when it comes to fire than off-campus, according to experts, who say 80 percent of all student fire fatalities occur off campus.

Resources: Princeton Review