Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University and Princeton University tied for the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of the best schools, the 10th straight year either or both have been first among national research institutions.

Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was the top liberal arts college. Princeton, in Princeton, New Jersey, was first, or tied for first among national research universities with Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 2001 until it placed second last year, according to the magazine, which announced the rankings yesterday.

U.S. News’s ratings, begun in 1983, are based on criteria such as student test scores, selectivity and peer evaluations. Universities also are graded on faculty pay and financial aid, which may be affected by the recession. Estimates from Harvard and Princeton that endowments declined at least 25 percent for the fiscal year ended June 30 didn’t affect this year’s rankings because they used fiscal year 2008 data, said Robert Morse, director of data research at U.S. News in Washington.

“The impact in our rating isn’t going to be this year but next year and the year after that,” he said.

Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, was ranked third among national universities, as it was last year. Four schools were tied for fourth: California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge; Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California; and the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

Liberal Arts Schools

Among liberal arts colleges, which are smaller than research universities and don’t offer graduate degrees, Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, was second, followed by Swarthmore College, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Middlebury College, in Middlebury, Vermont, and Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, were tied for fourth.

College presidents have criticized the rankings as distorting the admissions process by leading students to look at the list and not whether a school fits their needs. Presidents of Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore said in 2007 they wouldn’t use the ratings to promote their colleges and would only provide the magazine with information it gives other college guides.

Universities have also been accused of manipulating their policies to improve their rankings. At a conference in June, a Clemson University staff member described steps the school in Clemson, South Carolina, took to move up in the rankings, including giving its peer schools “below average” ratings to inflate its own standing, according to insidehighered.com.

Vying for Top

While Clemson officials said they aspire to be ranked among the top 20 public universities, the school denied it engaged in unethical behavior.

Most measures taken to improve position in the ratings, such as lowering class sizes and improving graduation ranks, are often good for students, Morse said.

Morse, who has worked for U.S. News since 1976, said the magazine never expected the rankings would gain such importance when they were introduced.

“That was the last thing on our mind, that they would be an influential force,” he said. “It was for consumers and now it’s becoming the publicly accepted bench mark. That wasn’t part of our thought process.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Staley in New York at ostaley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 20, 2009 00:01 EDT