"That's why I came here," Ryan A. Hackney '97 said.
But other students said the magazine report does not offer a reliable way of selecting a college.
"You really can't judge a college by the numbers," said Joshua E. Green-field '97. "I came here because of the great people."
And Matthew Mayers '97 joked that the report "is very useful for making fun of people at Yale."
The U.S. News poll is based on a comprehensive survey of such complex and varying statistics as admissions yield, expenditures on academic research and the number of faculty with doctorates.
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In the national liberal arts college category, Amherst College bested Williams College for the top spot. Swarthmore College placed third.