Columbia has been ranked fourth place in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of National Universities for the second year in a row. Harvard and Princeton are tied for first place this year, followed by Yale. Five schools are tied for fifth place: CalTech, MIT, Stanford, UChicago and UPenn. Duke is in tenth place. U.S. News' "Best Colleges 2012" rankings were released on September 13. 

U.S. News’ ratings were begun in 1983 and are based on peer evaluations, graduation and freshman retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rate. Last year, the methodology was adjusted to add high school counselors to the peer evaluations and to give more weight to graduation and retention rates.

Columbia is listed under the "National Universities" category, which include universities that offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master's, and doctoral degrees, and are committed to producing ground breaking research. The University climbed from eighth place to fourth place last year.

For more information and to see the full list of rankings, visit http://www.usnews.com or http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best colleges/rankings/national-universities.