Princeton University has claimed the top spot in this year's U.S. News & World Report rankings for best college in the nation, marking the third time the New Jersey Ivy League school has led a major ranking list this year.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University rounded out the top three.
The rankings, released on Tuesday, also revealed notable changes compared to previous years.
Four schools that previously made the top 10 among national universities — the California Institute of Technology, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern — all tied for sixth place. Additionally, Brown University, which ranked ninth in 2023, fell to the 13th spot this year.
Missing from this year's rankings is Columbia University, which announced last summer that it would no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate college rankings, while Yale and Harvard Law Schools also followed, which sparked debates.
Meanwhile, Spelman, Howard, Florida A&M, Tuskegee and Morehouse were ranked the top five historically Black colleges and universities.
U.S. News ranked approximately 1,500 four-year bachelor's degree-granting institutions in the United States, categorizing them into 10 unique overall rankings according to a methodology that was reworked last year.
Rankings publishers have often stated that their guides are important, but they should not be the only factor influencing college searches.
