We're Back, Baby: Princeton ranked #1 National University

Like a J-Lo summer pop single, Princeton has made a comeback, tying Harvard for #1 on the US News and World Report 2011-12 Ranking of the best undergraduate colleges in the United States.After a year of being slighted by the Crimson menace, Princeton has returned to its former place on the leaderboard chart. One trivial beef I have: we always seem to inexplicably "tie" with Harvard and yet are listed after it-- and don't tell me it's in alphabetical order.Changes from last year among the Ivies were sparse:

• Dartmouth falls from #9 to #11
• University of Pennsylvania is still tied in a pan-America five-way with CalTech, Stanford, MIT, and University of Chicago.
• Columbia's holding strong after a huge four-spot jump to #4 last year (mirroring their plummeting acceptance rates with the adoption of the Common App, or, as my theory goes, the result of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind". See also: Brown's Emma Watson effect.)
• Cornell: Still in Ithaca.

Other than that, rankings haven't moved much. Methodology changes every year, and  people always debate the legitimacy of college rankings. Unfortunately, we can't all be Sarah Lawrence.