The much maligned, used, cursed, and pored over US News College rankings have been released for 2009.

The Top 10 Universities are:

1. Harvard
2. Princeton
3. Yale
4. MIT (tied with Stanford)
5. Stanford (tied w/ MIT)
6. California Institute of Technology (tied with Penn).
7. University of Pennsylvania (tied with CalTech).
8. Columbia (tied with Duke and Chicago)
9. Duke (tied with Columbia and Chicago)
10. University of Chicago (tied with Duke and Columbia)

Inside Higher Ed points out today that participation in US News’ reputational survey of college deans is declining steadily. 

“This year’s 46 percent participation rate is down from 51 percent last
year, 58 percent the year before that, and 67 percent a few years
prior. The drop this year was particularly steep for liberal arts
colleges — to 44 percent from 55 percent. Much of the opposition to the
magazine’s rankings has come from that sector of higher education.”

US News claims that despite the drop, the survey still has statistically significant results. It is the single largest factor in the rankings.