Princeton tops list of 2017 U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings

USA TODAY NETWORKMary Bowerman, USA TODAY Network12:31 p.m. EDT September 13, 2016

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Princeton University remains the top national university according to the annual U.S. News & World Report 2017 Best Colleges Rankings.

The annual survey, released Tuesday, assesses more than 18,000 U.S. based colleges and universities, of which 1,374 are ranked.

Princeton University was followed closely byHarvard University. The University of Chicago, which was ranked ninth ten-years-ago, tied with Yale University for the third best national college this year.

"Johns Hopkins has had a similar jump – from No. 16 a decade ago to making the top 10 for the past two years," Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News said in an email. "Both schools have risen as a result of improving their graduation and freshman retention rates, as well as their SAT/ACT score."

The institutions receive rankings based on some 15 measures of academic quality, including retention, graduation rate performance, faculty resources, financial resources, and alumni giving.

This year, U.S. News modified the way it factored class size into the methodology to more accurately reflect class sizes at different campuses.

The report ranks colleges and universities within several categories, including  National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

You can find the complete rankings here.

Here are the top 20 National Universities: 

1. Princeton University

2. Harvard University

3. University of Chicago

3. Yale University

5. Columbia University

5. Stanford University

7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

8. Duke University

8. University of Pennsylvania

10. Johns Hopkins University

11. Dartmouth College

12. California Institute of Technology

12. Northwestern University

14. Brown University

15. Cornell University

15. Rice University

15. University of Notre Dame

15. Vanderbilt University

19. Washington University in St. Louis

20. Emory University

20. Georgetown University

20. University of California-Berkeley

Here are the Top 10 Public National Universities: 

1. University of California - Berkeley

2. University of California - Los Angeles

2. University of Virginia

4. University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor

5. University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill

6. College of William and Mary

7. Georgia Institute of Technology

8. University of California - Santa Barbara

9. University of California - Irvine

10. University of California- Davis

10. University of California - San Diego

10. University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign

10. University of Wisconsin-Madison