Harvard beat out Princeton this year for top academic honors.

Harvard v. Princeton on the football field once mattered, but no longer. Both Ivy League schools play more for pleasure, rather than for gridiron mastery.

When it comes to academic prowess — watch out! The two schools are among the elite colleges and universities who battle for top billing and, for according to the just released U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Universities survey, Harvard beat out Princeton for the #1 spot for the Best National Universities. Since 2006, Harvard had been #2 behind Princeton, but this year’s survey had the universities exchange places. Harvard last finished first in 1996.

Complete results of this year’s survey can be found in the September 1st issue of US News & World Report, on sale as of August 25th. Using  categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the U.S. News college rankings are now part of a multimedia resource for students and parents who are considering higher education option, particularly helping out with the college selection process.

“With so many students and families relying on the college rankings for their higher education research, we’re always working to find new ways to demystify the college search,” said U.S.News & World Report Editor Brian Kelly. “This year, we’ve included new ranking categories and editorial content that address the most relevant issues to prospective students. We’ve also developed an interactive student center on USNews.com, which allows students and parents to research their college options through videos, school discussion forums, and expert advice columns.”

The 2009 America’s Best Colleges covers several categories including:

• Best National Universities
• Best Liberal Arts Colleges
• Best Historically Black Colleges
• Best College for Your Buck
• A+ Schools for B Students
• Up-and-Coming Schools
• High School Counselor Picks

Immediately following Harvard and Princeton in the national universities ranking were Yale, MIT, and Stanford. The top liberal arts colleges were led by a pair of Massachusetts schools, Amherst and Williams, followed by Swarthmore, Wellesley, and Middlebury.

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Tags: Amherst College, Harvard, Middelbury College, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College, Williams College, Yale

If you’re like many Americans who are decidedly against the raising of taxes haphazardly, one Massachusetts proposal may have your head nodding in agreement that one proposal could be worth considering.

The Bay State, which is home to some our nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities, is taking a look at the large endowment funds at several of its citadels of higher learning and is considering slapping a 2.5% tax on endowments larger than one billion dollars. With nine schools having endowments that would be affected by the state’s proposal, the repercussions could be enormous.

Though sometimes derided for its high tax policies, indeed the state is called ‘Taxachussets’ by some, Bay State legislators have some compelling reasons for the tax:

• Endowment funds are currently tax exempt. All monies raised are garnered without threat of local, state, or federal taxation.

• Profits from endowments averaged nearly 17% in 2007, more than three times the yield most savers can get from their investments.

• Endowments continue to grow because most schools are hesitant to spend what they receive. In 2007, only 4.4% of endowment money was spent at the average school.

Harvard students just received notice that their education expenses will increase by 3.5% next fall which is about the same as the inflation rate. However, with school costing just above $47,000 annually, the burden on families only gets heavier.

According to CNN host, Glenn Beck, Harvard’s $34.6 billion endowment is the largest in the country. If the school were to take 1% of their endowment funds and applied those monies to student tuition and fees, every student enrolled at Harvard would attend the school for free.

Similar legislation is also being studied on the federal level and is, according to the Christian Science Monitor, a distinct possibility once a U.S. Senate panel completes its review of 136 schools with endowments of at least $500 million.

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Tags: endowment tax, endowments, Harvard