It’s one thing to know that Harvard and MIT are, according to U.S. News and World Report, the two top universities in the world. This wasn’t unexpected: the two prestigious Boston-area universities have been nabbing top spots on “Best Colleges” charts pretty much since college rankings began. But usually, we relate high academic scores and prestigious institutions with high-stress, competitive environments. The Daily Beast’s ranking of the “Top 25 Happiest Colleges,” however, seems to challenge this assumption, because both Harvard and MIT cracked the top five spots.

In contrast to an article three years ago in which the Daily Beast rated Harvard and MIT the third and seventh most stressful colleges in the U.S., respectively, the two Cambridge schools now rank among those with the happiest students. MIT nabbed the No. 3 spot, while Harvard trailed slightly behind at No. 4.

The rankings were based on four factors: the freshman retention rate, the “Overall Experience” score, the “If I Could Do It Again” score and the student health center score. The numbers for the freshman retention rate came from the National Center for Education Statistics, while the scores for the other three rankings came from Niche, based on surveys of current and former students.

MIT scored only slightly above Harvard. Ninety-eight percent of first-year students come back for a second year and the university has an overall experience score of 10 (out of 10). The “If I Could Do It Again” score, based on the number of former students who would choose MIT again if given the choice, rang in at 9.2 and the student health center — which was ranked on statistics like student access to health services and the general health and well-being of students on campus — was given a 6.5.

The only category in which Harvard beat MIT was in student health services, scoring a 6.8. Harvard has a slightly lower first-year retention rate than MIT at 97 percent, as well as an overall experience score of 9.7. The “If I Could Do It Again Score” came in at 8.9.

The rankings seem to indicate that, whether or not Cambridge’s big-name brands create high-stress environments, students are ultimately happier for having gone.

Interested in what other universities made the list? Here are the top 10 happiest colleges in the U.S.:

1. Stanford University
2. Brown University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4. Harvard University
5. Washington and Lee University
6. Rice University
7. University of Southern California
8. The University of Texas at Austin
9. University of California, Los Angeles
10. University of Wisconsin-Madison

Image via Jannis Tobias Werner/Shutterstock