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Harvard University has been toppled from first place in the US News and World Report magazine's rankings of America's best colleges after a six-year tenure.

Harvard fell from first to third behind the two other colleges which have long jostled over the top three positions: Yale University came in first, followed by Princeton.

A Harvard spokesman was dismissive of the survey's results, as United States colleges typically are, though it has been running since 1983 and has long held sway as the most influential of the college guides.

"We've never responded to these non-academic surveys, we've never responded to them whatever our figure is," he said. "Most schools don't. They are not very interested in them."

Duke University came in fourth, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Brown University. The California Institute of Technology tied with North Western University for ninth position. Swarthmore College nudged out Amherst college to take the position of top liberal arts college.

US News is facing new competition this year from guides produced by rival magazines Time and Newsweek. In the latest of a series of modifications over the years, in 1996 it sought to add a measure of "value added" to its education rankings, by comparing graduation rates to the exam scores of incoming students.