by Jeffrey J. Selingo

Some 20 years ago, I spent my summer in Washington, D.C., as an intern for the U.S. News & World Report college rankings. Part of my job was to call colleges to get missing data that was used to compile the rankings or confirm the data that the magazine already had from the school. Princeton University ended up No. 1 in the rankings that year. Last year, Princeton was No. 1. In other words, not much has changed in two decades. The top of the list has remained relatively consistent for quite some time.