University | 11:59 am | September 13, 2011 | By

Yale comes in third in U.S. News & World Report rankings, again

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Photo by Emily Wanger.

Yet again, Yale came in behind Harvard and Princeton in U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings, released Tuesday morning.

This is the ninth year Yale has been ranked third by the organization, though Princeton climbed up a rung from second place to first, finishing in a tie with Harvard at the top of the list. The biggest change among the top ten spots came from the University of Chicago, which jumped four spots from tying for ninth place last year to tying for 5th place this year. Columbia held its spot at 4th place, as did Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania at 5th place – though they were joined by the climbing MIT, Caltech and the University of Chicago. Dartmouth fell from 9th place to 11th place, overtaken by both Duke and the University of Chicago.

U.S. News creates its annual college rankings based on data and peer reviews submitted by colleges, including selectivity, faculty quality, financial resources, student retention, alumni giving and graduation rates.

Last year, U.S. News started a new ranking system based solely on the responses from guidance counselors from some of the best high schools across the country as to which national universities offer the best undergraduate education. This year, Yale, Harvard, MIT and Stanford all tied for first place, as they did last year – only Princeton lost its first place ranking, falling to the 5th place spot.

This year:

1st: Harvard

1st: Princeton

3rd: Yale

4th: Columbia

5th: Caltech

5th: MIT

5th: Stanford

5th: University of Chicago

5th: University of Pennsylvania

10th: Duke

Last year:

1st: Harvard

2nd: Princeton

3rd: Yale

4th: Columbia

5th: Stanford

5th: UPenn

7th: Caltech

7th: MIT

9th: Dartmouth

9th: Duke

9th: U Chicago

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