U.S. News college rankings are out, here's how California colleges fared

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U.S. News & World Report on Tuesday released its closely followed annual college rankings, with California universities again topping the list. 

The University of California–Los Angeles ranked #1 this year, beating out UC Berkeley in the category of best public schools. The two schools tied for first place last year. 

University of Michigan–Ann Arbor rounded out the top three.

SEE ALSO: Gov. Newsom signs law to restrict cell phones at California schools

The University of California system was well-represented in the best public schools rankings: 

6. UC San Diego 

9. UC Davis, UC Irvine (tied)  

13. UC Santa Barbara 

When it came to the publication's overall "Best National University Rankings," Stanford University came in fourth, falling one slot from last year when it tied for third with Harvard. 

Stanford was preceded by: 

1. Princeton

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. Harvard

California Institute of Technology in Pasadena came in sixth best in the overall national rankings. 

UCLA came in 15th in this category, with UC Berkeley ranking 17th best nationwide. 

U.S. News also named Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, as the best in its National Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings.

Spelman College in Atlanta was named the best among the country's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.   

The annual list comes out as high school seniors across the country have been working on college applications with deadlines looming in the coming months.

It also comes as the intensely competitive college application landscape has been changing, with many universities reinstating SAT and ACT requirements, as other colleges continue to make adjustments after dropping standardized test scores entirely.

The acceptance rate at UCLA was 9% with the average high school grade point average among those admitted at 3.9, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The tuition and fees for in-state students was about $14K. It’s more than $46K for out-of-state students. 

UC Berkeley had a 12% acceptance rate with the average GPA at 3.9. 

Tuition and fees at Berkeley were almost $17K for in-state and about $51K for out-of-state.

At Stanford, tuition and fees to attend the private institution were about $66K, according to U.S. News.

The acceptance rate was 4%, with the SAT scores among accepted students ranging from 1510 to 1580 on average. For the ACTs it was 34 to 35, and the average high school GPA was 3.9.