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Students throw their mortarboards in the air during their graduation photograph at the University of Birmingham degree congregations on July 14, 2009 in Birmingham, England. Getty Images

If you're looking to expand your education, you may have to get selective: There are hundreds of graduate schools in the United States, and that can make picking a place for your advanced degrees difficult.

The GRE is hard enough without you panicking about where to go for grad school. Luckily, U.S. News and World Report — a rankings website that publishes news and data — released its best graduate schools list on Tuesday. The nation's top business school was a tie between Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, while the best law school was Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, according to a news release.

The rankings also recognized programs in research, nursing, engineering and education.

"A graduate degree can lead to professional advancement and a potential salary increase," U.S. News' Anita Narayan said in the release. "Whether you are interested in pursuing a full-time program or taking classes part-time, the grad school rankings and advice offer guidance on finding programs that help you fulfill your personal goals."

The rankings were based on both objective and subjective factors, drawing conclusions from surveys distributed to nearly 2,000 graduate program administrators and 16,500 professionals. But that doesn't mean you should take them at face value. Rankings are notoriously easy to manipulate, so you should be skeptical while reading.

Bloomberg, for example, also ranked Harvard its No. 1 business graduate school in 2016 — but the University of Pennsylvania only reached sixth on its list. Forbes knocked Harvard down to second place in its 2015 rankings, instead choosing to honor Stanford University in Stanford, California.

With that in mind, check out U.S. News' selections for the top 10 business schools:

1. Harvard University

2. University of Pennsylvania

3. University of Chicago

4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

4. Northwestern University

4. Stanford University

7. University of California - Berkeley

8. Dartmouth College

9. Columbia University

9. Yale University

And top 10 law schools:

1. Yale University

2. Stanford University

3. Harvard University

4. University of Chicago

5. Columbia University

6. New York University

7. University of Pennsylvania

8. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

8. University of Virginia

10. Duke University

10. Northwestern University

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