It had to happen sooner or later.

After years of denying Harvard its top billing, US News and World Report has for the first time bestowed the University with a first-place ranking in the magazine's annual survey of American higher education institutions.

News of the rankings brought smiles to many Harvard students, who said they believe the results of the survey will substantiate the University's claim to being the best college in America.

"I've always been hearing people say that Yale is the best school, partly because of the ranking," said Woo F. Kwong '94. "I've argued that Harvard is a better school, and now we've got the ranking to back it up."

The University's vault from last year's third-place finish comes mainly as a result of a change in one part of the evaluation process, according to Robert Morse, the magazine's senior editor in charge of the survey.

U.S. News ranks universities by considering their performance in five areas--academic reputation, faculty resources, financial resources, student satisfaction and student selectivity--and assigning a certain weight to each category, Morse said.

But this year, U.S. News changed its criteria for judging the faculty resources category, Morse said. Now, U.S. News considers two new factors--the percent of part-time faculty and the average salary and benefits of tenured professors.

Since Harvard finished first in those two areas, its overall ranking in the faculty resources rose from 11th to second, Morse said.

Harvard's success in the faculty category "is ironic because of the accusations that the University emphasizes faculty research over their undergraduate program," Morse added.

But what is more ironic is that the world's richest university finished a paultry seventh--down five spots from last year--in the financial resources category.

Morse attributed the change to the fact that U.S. News considers how much money is directed to scholarships, student services, computer facilities and libraries, and not just absolute resources. In these areas, Morse said, Harvard spent comparatively lessthan some of its competitors.

"Harvard just doesn't spend as much on thestudents as do some other schools with all ofthese factors taken into account," Morse said.

Harvard spent $46,918 per student last year,less than half of that of first-place CaliforniaInstitue of Technology, which spent $102,262 perstudent.

Up two notches from last year's third-placestanding, Harvard bypassed perennial rival Yale,which dropped to third place after taking the tophonor the past two years. Stanford, which won thetitle in 1983, 1985 and 1987, came in second.

While many students took pleasure in the factthat they attend the "best school in the nation,"others downplayed the importance of the ranking.

"I don't think people pay much attention to themagazine's findings, and they shouldn't," saidRandall T. Kempner '91. "It won't change the waypeople look upon Harvard. Such a result will begood for only one thing--bragging rights againstYale at halftime."

Such sentiment was echoed by an administratorof one of Harvard's newly-humbled competitors, whosaid he fails to see the importance of rankingsamong schools of such high standards.

"When a university reaches the top 10 list,they think it's the most wonderful ranking systemin the world," said Radley Daly, Yale's assistantsecretary. "But what does it mean if you're first,second or third? I'd just like to tell Harvard onething--welcome to the club."

In the survey, Harvard received an overallscore of 100, while Stanford fell just short at99.9. Yale and Princeton followed with figures of99.6 and 99.5, respectively