U.S. News Best Colleges 2011

By Brian Burnsed, U.S.News & World Report

This year, Harvard University regained sole possession of the top spot in U.S.News & World Report's Best Colleges 2011 rankings of national universities. Last year, Harvard and Princeton University tied for first, but Princeton fell to second in the 2011 rankings of these large, research-oriented institutions. Williams College can once again boast that it's the nation's top-ranked national liberal arts college -- a category of schools that place a higher emphasis on undergraduate education -- as it ranked a spot ahead of fellow Massachusetts liberal arts school Amherst College for the second consecutive year.