BOSTON — Harvard University has been ranked the nation’s best university in U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey of American institutions of higher learning, the first time the school has received that honor since the weekly news magazine started its ranking in 1983.

Amherst College, meanwhile, was ranked the nation’s best liberal arts college out of 141 colleges. Other New England standbys — Williams, Bowdoin, Wellesley and Middlebury — also dominated the top 10 in that category.

The annual ranking, criticized by many educators as a capricious measure of quality but always eagerly watched by image-wary institutions, takes into account selectivity in admissions, quality of faculty, financial resources, student satisfaction and reputation among peers.

The U.S. News & World Report survey, which is due out on newsstands Monday, ranked Harvard first among 204 universities. Following Harvard are, in order, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia and Cornell.

The magazine cited a “world-class faculty combined with the nation’s choosiest admissions office” (18 percent of 12,843 applicants accepted for last year’s freshman class) in ranking Harvard No. 1. Last year, Yale was ranked first.

The placement in the survey comes as Harvard is increasingly criticized for perceived flaws in its undergraduate education program, stemming from greater emphasis on faculty research over classroom teaching, and as the school searches for a new president to replace Derek C. Bok, who is retiring.

Although the 6,580-student Ivy League stalwart is one of the nation’s most prestigious schools, it is also one of the most expensive. A year at Harvard costs $22,510, according to figures compiled by the College Board.

Among smaller liberal arts colleges, Amherst was ranked first, followed by Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Williams, Bowdoin College, Wellesley, Pomona College in California, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Middlebury College in Vermont, Smith, and Davidson College in North Carolina, in that order.

It is the first time Amherst has been ranked first; last year, Swarthmore got the honor. The magazine cited Amherst’s “academic flexibility and the intimacy of a small student body,” and lauded the 169-year-old, 1,600-student institution’s efforts to be “the biggest little school in the country.”

Amherst also comes with a big price tag. This year, it raised its tuition and fees 10 percent, one of the larger percentage increases made this year. The total cost of attendance for one year there is $22,025, according to the College Board.

In other categories, U.S. News & World Report ranked Villanova University in Philadelphia as the best regional university in the north, with Worcester Polytechnic Institute, last year’s first-place finisher, coming in second. Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., was No. 1 for the South, Illinois Wesleyan University for the Midwest and Trinity University in San Antonio for the West.

Simon’s Rock of Bard College in Great Barrington was ranked first among regional liberal arts colleges. Wofford College in South Carolina held that honor for the South; Wittenberg University in Ohio came in first for the Midwest region; and Southwestern University in Texas was ranked the best small college in the West.

Among specialty schools, Babson College was ranked the best business school in the nation, followed by Bryant College in Rhode Island and Bentley College in Waltham. The Juilliard School in New York was ranked first for the arts, while Harvey Mudd College in California came in first among engineering schools.

The magazine’s “up and comers” include Emory University in Atlanta, Rhodes College in Tennessee, the University of Hartford and Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. Those listed as “Best Buys” include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (tuition, $8,843), Washington and Lee University in Virginia (tuition, $10,850), Trenton State College in New Jersey (tuition, $3,225) and the State University of New York (tuition, $4,700).