The U.S. News & World Report recently released its 2012 rankings of graduate schools, and this year many of Harvard's graduate schools barely missed the top spot.

In the biggest upset, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business left Harvard Business School behind, breaking a three year tie and coming out on top. For the first time in a number of years, Harvard's overall composite score dropped to 98 from 100, putting HBS in second place.

Harvard Law School once again remained runner-up to Yale Law School, which continued a two-decade streak at the top. The Harvard Graduate School of Education placed second to Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education and Human Development. The Harvard Kennedy School tied with Indiana University (Bloomington) for second to Syracuse University's Maxwell School in the pool of public affairs programs.

A glimmer of hope shines in Harvard Medical School, which got the top spot in the research category, but stayed low on the ladder for primary care rankings, even after opening a $30 million center last year devoted to primary care instruction and implementation. HMS did, however, sweep the field in internal medicine and women's health peer ratings.

Although most might agree that a ranking of second place doesn't seem too shabby, Harvard, for better or for worse, is always vying for first. We'll just have to wait until next year to see what happens.