The annual best college rankings released by U.S. News & World Report put Princeton University at No. 1, followed by Harvard University and then the University of Chicago and Yale University tied for third.
The yearly rankings include data ranking 1,374 universities and college in the United States and provide data on more than 1,800. The institutions are also divided into different categories, ranking national universities and regional colleges.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching identifies a national university as one that offers a full range of undergraduate majors, as well as master's and doctoral degrees, said CNBC. The U.S. has 280 national universities, with 172 of them being public schools, 101 of them private schools, and seven for-profits schools.
The magazine used up to 15 different indicators of academic excellence, such as freshman retention, faculty resources and graduation rates to establish its rankings.
Rounding out the top 10 of the best national institutions were Columbia University and Stanford University, tied for fifth; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, seventh; Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania, tied for eighth, and Johns Hopkins University at No. 10.
USA Today noted that the University of Chicago, which was ranked in ninth place 10 years ago, has continued its steady climb up the annual rankings.
"Johns Hopkins has had a similar jump – from No. 16 a decade ago to making the top 10 for the past two years," said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News. "Both schools have risen as a result of improving their graduation and freshman retention rates, as well as their SAT/ACT score."
The second 10 universities include Dartmouth College at No. 11; the California Institute of Technology and Northwestern University tied for 12th; Brown University 14th; Cornell University, Rice University, the University of Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt University tied for 15th; Washington University at St. Louis tied for 19th; and Emory University, Georgetown University, and the University of California, Berkeley tied for 20th.
The University of California, Berkeley was also listed at U.S. News's top public university followed by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Virginia tied for second; the University of Michigan No. 4; University of North Carolina No. 5; College of William and Mary No. 6; the Georgia Institute of Technology No. 7; University of California, Santa Barbara No. 8; University of California, Irvine No. 9; and the University of California, Davis, University of California, San Diego, the University of Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin all tied for No. 10.
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