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For the fourth consecutive year, Princeton University has topped the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of "America's Best Colleges," this time sharing the top spot with Harvard University, which was second last year.
Yale University is ranked third, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Four schools, the California Institute of Technology, Duke University, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania, share the fifth spot.
The University of California-Berkeley and the University of Virginia, tied at No. 21, are the top-rated public universities. Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., is rated the country's best liberal arts college.
U.S. News uses a formula that includes graduation and retention rates, faculty resources and other factors to determine the rankings, which are both popular and controversial. Critics have long contended that parents and high school students rely far too heavily on U.S. News in choosing schools, and that colleges gear some of their efforts, such as admissions, toward getting high rankings.
"We don't like the notion that some colleges are acting in response to the rankings," said Brian Kelly, managing editor of U.S. News. "We think that's a shame."
This year's results will be published in the Monday edition of the magazine.
For the first time, U.S. News has ranked national universities from 1 through 150. Third and fourth-tier schools are left unranked. Last year, the magazine published a top 50 list and left second- through fourth-tier schools unranked.
In determining the latest rankings, the magazine stopped factoring in yield, the percentage of students that accept admissions offered by a university, into its equation.
That seemed to make little difference in the rankings: Of the top 20 national universities, only one school, Vanderbilt, moved into that group and it was ranked 21st last year.
Kelly said the magazine may drop high school class rankings from next year's survey.
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