Aug 27, 2014 05:41 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The University of Virginia has topped the Daily Caller's list of best colleges in America.

This year, U.S. News & World Report listed the school as America's second best public university - along with UCLA - behind UC Berkeley.

The university's faculty includes a Pulitzer Prize winning former United States Poet Laureate, 26 Fulbright fellows, and a winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The school's alumni comprise of 50 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Marshall Scholars, 4 Churchill Scholars, and 29 Truman Scholars.

Established in 1819, UVA is the only university in the United States that is designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

"The designation is based on Thomas Jefferson's comprehensive architectural vision," current University Architect David Neuman said in a statement. "It's not just the buildings, but the site plan and the architecture and the landscape architecture."

"This is the paradigm of the American campus," Neuman said. "This is not a historical relic we are struggling with. It still functions well, we have classes and events and we serve meals and house students. It has always continued to be adaptable."

The ranking is based on overall eight categories: academics, professor-quality, graduation rates, admission, social life rating, student-attractiveness, campus and the surrounding area, and the cost of tuition and fees.

"If you are a high school student, or the parent of a high school student, and you seek advice from, say, a GUIDANCE COUNSELOR, that person is likely to wax about academics, stress the importance of reputation, and give other such conventional wisdom," The Daily Caller says in their official website. "Those things are very important. But other things are also very important."

Top 10 American Universities:

1. University of Virginia

2. Princeton University

3. Stanford University

4. University of California, Chapel Hill

5. Vanderbilt University

6. Pomona College

7. University of California, Santa Barbara

8. United States Naval Academy

9. College of William and Mary

10. University of California, Los Angeles

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