The famous U.S. News & World report rankings are out for best universities and colleges in the country. Princeton is number one overall. Stanford is tied for third and is the highest ranking California school. Caltech is ninth. 

UCLA is tied with UC Berkeley for the highest-rated public university. While the U.S. News rankings get a lot of attention, they're not without criticisms. Michael Itzkowitz is an analyst for the center-left think tank Third Way and former director of the College Scorecard under President Obama.