Princeton University maintained its top spot as the highest-ranked university in the country according to the annual U.S. News & World Report released on Monday. In its latest report, the global authority in education rankings assessed 1,466 U.S. universities on 17 measures of academic quality, including graduation rates, student–faculty ratio, social mobility, and the average federal loan debt of graduates, as well as schools’ academic reputation. It then calculated its rankings based on six categories that are each weighted differently: student outcomes (40 percent), faculty resources (20 percent), expert opinion from top academics such as presidents, provosts, and deans of admissions (20 percent), financial resources (10 percent), student excellence (7 percent), and alumni giving, or the average percentage of living alumni with bachelor’s degrees who gave to their school during 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 (3 percent). This year’s top five universities are all prestigious schools with an acceptance rate between 5 and 7 percent. Four of …