While incoming college students get accustomed to dorm life, pondering important philosophical questions such as how to maintain a decent GPA while doing keg stands every night, we have decided to take a look at how some of the nation's most prestigious institutions rank this week in search activity. U.S. News & World Report annually ranks the top colleges in the country. In comparison, the Lycos 50 takes a look this week at the top 20 schools based on web search activity.

While Princeton, Harvard, and Yale make up U.S. News & World Report's top three, Cornell is the most searched university, receiving 33% more search activity than Princeton at #2. Stanford, Duke, and Notre Dame are more popular than Ivies Harvard, Columbia, and Yale. While Stanford is the fourth ranked university according to the U.S. News & World Report, it receives 95% more search activity than Harvard.

Cornell's popularity is likely due to the fact that the school receives many more applications than the other Ivies. While Harvard received 22,920 applications for the class of 2011 and Yale received 19,323 applications, Cornell received 30,191. (Source: IvySuccess.com)

In addition, Stanford, Duke, and Notre Dame are well-known for sports as well as academics, which could account for their popularity above schools like Columbia and Yale.

How I miss the days when I had a responsibility for only an hour and a half every day and could spend the rest of the time playing flip cup and watching soap operas. Ah, higher learning.

The top ranked universities this week are:

Cornell

Princeton

Stanford

Duke

Notre Dame

Harvard

Columbia

Yale

Vanderbilt

University of Chicago

Also, take a look at the top college searches in 2000 and 2003.