Three of Harvard’s graduate schools have once again received top rankings in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” released this week.

Harvard Business School (HBS), Harvard Medical School and Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE) all held the number-one spot in their categories.

Harvard Law School rose a rank, narrowly edging out Stanford to capture the number-two position.

While the Medical School has maintained its position atop the list for several years, this is only the second consecutive year that the Business School and the Graduate School of Education have held the top positions, previously held by Stanford graduate schools.

Harvard and Stanford remained neck and neck throughout this year’s rankings. Stanford trailed Harvard Business School by one point and tied the Graduate School of Education.

Representatives at both HBS and GSE stressed the mutual respect among the top schools, however.

“The [Harvard] faculty feel that they’re in good company with those other top schools,” said Christine Sanni, a GSE spokesperson.

“I think that these lists tend to give the impression that competition is cutthroat,” said James A. Aisner ’68, Director of Media Relations at HBS. “But I think there exists much more respect and cooperation between schools than these rankings might imply.”

While the ranking of three of Harvard’s major graduate schools stayed the same or rose, Harvard’s engineering division fell two spots from 17 to 19 on the list.

U.S. News bases their rankings on the opinions of experts such as deans and senior faculty, as well as statistical evidence measuring the “quality” of the school.

The schools are rated according to a variety of criteria, including acceptance rate, undergraduate grade point average and rate of post graduate employment.

Harvard graduate school officials expressed their weariness about the reliability of U.S. News list and similar rankings. They encouraged students who are considering graduate schools to look beyond their rankings.

“I think the fact of the matter is that we think it’s very important at the end of the day for students to think about what is the best match for them, rather than going on some rank list,” he said. “Statistically, there’s not a great amount of difference in point spread from school to school.”

Don Gibbons, associate dean for public affairs at the the Medican School, echoed Aisner’s advice. “We are pleased that the school is consistently ranked number one; however, students shouldn’t be using surveys like this for anything other than the minor portion of the decision making,” he said.

Despite recent scrutiny of the list, officials still recognize the honor and prestige involved in holding the top ranks in four major graduate school categories.

In a memo yesterday to faculty and staff about developments at the school, Dean Ellen C. Lagemann, dean of the Medical School, expressed her excitement.

“I want to congratulate faculty, staff, and students for the work they do to continue making this the ‘top school of Education’ according to U.S. News & World Report rankings. Though some might question the methodology of U.S. News, it’s nice to be recognized nonetheless,” she said in the memo.