Princeton, Williams and U.C. Berkeley Top New List of Best Colleges

Princeton University, Williams College and the University of California, Berkeley sit atop new rankings of the best universities, liberal arts colleges and public universities, respectively.

The annual and closely-watched rankings from U.S. News & World Report, released Tuesday, showed consistency—as they usually do—in the standing of most top universities. Harvard followed Princeton on the list of the best universities. The University of Chicago moved up to tie with Yale for third place.

Amherst continues to occupy the No. 2 spot on the list of liberal arts colleges, while Wellesley moved up to take third place. On the list of public schools, the University of California, Berkeley maintained its long-held top spot, followed by a tie between the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Virginia.

The U.S. News lists—which are closely followed each year by schools and their applicants—included data about more than 1,800 colleges, ranking 1,374 of them. Schools are evaluated on several factors, including graduation rates, freshman retention, faculty and financial resources, alumni giving and student selectivity.

View the full list here.