[Updated: 6 PM EST. See below.]

So we still have seven hours until US News & World Report releases its 2010 college rankings, a.k.a. the most important publication in the history of mankind. If you’re a total square (don’t worry, Huey Lewis says it’s hip), you can go to the website and stare at its gigantic countdown clock until midnight, when the American higher education system will shudder and have a collective orgasm.

Or, you can just find out the rankings here.

The internet is a gossipy place, children, and it looks like the list has been leaked! Princeton has returned to the number one spot, after an entire year as number two behind Harvard. If the leaked list is accurate, Princeton has been ranked number one for nine of the past 10 years.

See the full list after the jump!

1. Harvard
1. Princeton
3. Yale
4. Caltech
4. MIT
4. Stanford
4. UPenn
8. Columbia
8. Chicago
10. Duke
11. Dartmouth
12. Northwestern
12. Washu
14. Hopkins
15. Cornell
16. Brown
17. Emory
17. Rice
17. Vanderbilt
20. Notre Dame
21. Berkeley
22. Carnegie Mellon
23. Georgetown
24. UCLA
24. UVA
26. USC
27. Michigan
28. Tufts
28. UNC
28. Wake Forest
31. Brandeis
32. NYU
33. William and Mary
34. Boston College
35. Georgia Tech
35. Lehigh
35. UCSD
35. Rochester
39. U of Illnois- Urbana-Champaign
39. Wisconsin-Madison
41. Case Western
42. RPI
42. UC-Davis
42. UC-Santa Barbara
42. Washington
46. UC-Irvine
47. Penn State
47. University of Florida
47. Texas-Austin
50. Tulane
50. Miami

And, for the first time ever, US News also published a ranking of undergraduate teaching:

National Universities
1. Dartmouth
2. Princeton
3. Yale
4. Stanford
4. University of Md – Baltimore County
6. Brown
6. William and Mary
8. Duke
8. Miami – Oxford
8. Notre Dame
11. Bowling Green State
11. Howard
11. Rice
11. Berkeley
11. Chicago
11. UMich
11. UNC
11. St. Thomas
11. Wake Forest

UPDATE:

The internet never lies! Princeton’s ascension has been confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, the AP, and US News.

(sources: collegeconfidential.com, oracle.com)