Ivy League Ranked No. 1

Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities share the No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of the top universities in the nation.

The University of California-Berkeley and the University of Virginia share the No. 1 spot in the magazine's separate ranking of the nation's public universities.

The rankings are included in the magazine's annual publication, America's Best Colleges, which goes on sale Monday.

The magazine used several criteria, including an institution's reputation among academics; the percentage of students that go on to graduate; faculty pay, class size, student-faculty ratio and other indicators of faculty resources; student selectivity; financial resources, such as spending per student; and alumni giving.

Other top universities were Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, sharing the No. 2 spot; Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania, sharing No. 3; and California Institute of Technology at No. 4. Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College and Northwestern University shared No. 5.

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, followed Berkeley and Virginia among the public universities. The University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor shared the No. 3 spot. The University of California-San Diego followed at No. 4. The College of William & Mary was No. 5.