Harvard University tied with Princeton for the top spot on the 2010 list, with both scoring a 100 of 100 on U.S. News and World Report's ranking scale. The scale includes such qualities as student retention and graduation, faculty resources, selectivity and financial resources. Harvard is the most exclusive school on the list, with a 7.9% acceptance rate as of 2008 (the last year for which data are available).
Yale University stands alone in third place on the U.S. News and World Report's ranking scale for America's Best National Universities. Yale scored a 98 on the ranking scale although they are more selective than Princeton (accepting only 8.6% of applicants to Princeton's 9.9%).
Four schools tied for fourth place on the 2010 U.S. News and World Report list: the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. CIT is both the smallest and least expensive of the schools in the top five while Penn has both the highest undergraduate enrollment and highest costs (tuition, fees, room and board cost nearly $50,000 per school year) of the top schools.
U.S. News and World Report also sorts colleges and universities into other categories, such as Best Master's Universities (universities with few to no doctoral degrees), Best Liberal Arts Colleges (colleges awarding more than 50% of their bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts) and Best Baccalaureate Colleges (colleges awarding less than 50% of their bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts). While master's and baccalaureate universities are ranked according to region (North, South, East and West), the Best Liberal Arts Colleges are ranked nationally, with Williams College in Massachusetts earning the top spot for 2010.