Northwestern University slipped one spot in the U.S. News & World Report annual college rankings, falling from No. At seventh, Northwestern is tied with Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania. Princeton University remains first, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and Yale University all also ahead of Northwestern. In the specialized school rankings released earlier this year, Northwestern retained the No. 2 spot among graduate business schools, with the School of Education and Social Policy ranking 6th, and the Pritzker School of Law ranking 10.