Harvard University narrowly regains undisputed first place over Princeton in US News & World Report college rankings

Harvard University has been named America's best university in the influential US News & World Report college rankings, retaking the undisputed number one position after sharing the podium with Princeton last year.

According to the US News rankings, this year only a single point out of 100 separated Harvard and second-placed Princeton, with Harvard taking the gold medal thanks to its superior student graduation rates, financial resources and staff.

A quartet of elite Ivy league universities – Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia took the top four positions – with Stanford tied for fifth place with the University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League college.

Columbia, in New York city, was the biggest winner in the 2010 rankings, rising from eighth to fourth at the expense of MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cal Tech, the California Institute of Technology.

The University of California's Berkeley campus in San Francisco was the highest state-funded university, ranked 22nd overall.

Among the smaller undergraduate-focused institutions, Williams College in Massachusetts remained the top liberal arts college.

Although often derided as a shallow beauty contest, the US News rankings are closely watched by thousands of college-bound students and their parents, with movement up or down the annual listings of just a few places having an oversized impact on application numbers and recruitment.

The top 10 US News rankings:

1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Yale University
4. Columbia University
5= Stanford, University of Pennsylvania
7= Cal Tech, MIT
9= Dartmouth, Duke, University of Chicago