Many students linked the rise in the rankings to improved student satisfaction. However, U.S. News only considers academic and recruiting reputation, student placement and student selectivity in its assessments.

"There was a very strong initiative to end the student dissatisfaction with the school's non-response to student concerns," said HBS student Rosemary N. Li. "There has been a complete turnaround. They have improved a lot of little things to make it a pleasure to be here."

Patrice J. McDonald, a second-year student from Ireland, said the administration has also worked to attract more women and foreign applicants.

All the students interviewed agreed that no applicants or recruiters take the rankings too seriously.

"I can tell you that it doesn't make a difference [to recruiting companies]," said Li. "They all know the schools from the inside, so they don't pay attention to these superficial rankings."

In the rest of the U.S. News issue, other Harvard graduate school ratings remained largely unchanged.

The Medical School kept the top spot, and the Law School stayed at No. 2 behind the perennially first-ranked Yale.

Other top-finishing schools and Ph.D. departments include: School of Public Health, No. 2; Graduate School of Design, No. 1; Biology, No. 1; Chemistry, No. 2; Economics, No. 1; Mathematics, No. 1; Physics, No. 1, and English, No. 1