U.S. News and World Report’s new rankings of U.S. colleges, almost universally reviled by academics as a meaningless beauty content — but one that most of them strive to game — contained no surprises in the top four this year.

So which school took the number one spot? It’s a tie.

In the top spot are Princeton and Harvard.  Last year, Harvard sat at the top of the rankings but in 2012 it had to share the coveted spot with the New Jersey school.

The price tag for tuition and fees at Harvard and Princeton came in at $39,849 and $37,000, respectively,  according to the report.

Princeton holds the title of being the most inexpensive school on the top ten list, though it’s a high-priced group.

At a time when some businessmen are handing out six-figure checks for college-aged students to side-step University life, some students are shelling out an even higher price tag to attend the nation’s top-ranked schools. The four-year price for a degree at many of the schools ranked by U.S. News now exceeds $200,000, according to the rankings Website.

The universities  in the third and fourth position have an even heftier price tag: Yale University and Columbia University.

While there was little movement in the rankings, Chicago joined the top 5 from its tied 9th place ranking last year. The University of Miami experienced one of the largest leaps for a school in the top 50 moving from tie for 47th to a tie for the 38th spot. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute dropped from its tied spot at 41st to a tie for 50th place.

You can find the complete ranking on the Best Colleges website.

Google is offering one year free access to The U.S. News College Compass for students that register before Friday, Sept. 16. The College Compass grants access to the publications complete college rankings, graduate school data, expanded school profiles and also provides stats for entering class.

Here’s t the top 20 National Universities:

1. Harvard University

2. Princeton University

3. Yale University

4. Columbia University

5.  The California Institute of Technology

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

5.  Stanford University

5. University of Chicago

5. University of Pennsylvania

10. Duke University

11. Dartmouth College

12. Northwestern University

13. Johns Hopkins University

14. Washington University in St. Louis

15.  Brown University

16. Cornell University

17. Rice University

17. Vanderbilt University

19. University of Notre Dame

20. Emory University

National Liberal Arts Colleges: 

1. Williams College

2. Amherst College

3. Swarthmore College

4. Pomona College

5. Middlebury College

6. Bowdoin College

6. Carleton College

6. Wellesley College

9. Claremont McKenna College

10. Harverford College

Are your suprised by the list? Who do you hope to see top the national university and national liberal arts school list next year?