Harvard's medical, business and education graduate schools are the nation's finest, according to a just-released U.S. News and World Report survey.

Harvard's main competitor for first place in several graduate programs--including business and several Ph.D.s in the humanities--is now as likely to be Stanford than be Yale, the rankings show.

The Harvard Law School--which tied Stanford for second last year--fell to third this year.

Both the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Graduate School of Education (GSE) also held the top spots last year in the survey, which the magazine's editors admit to being somewhat subjective.

In two of the magazine's categories--reputation by other academics and by medical professionals--HMS has consistently earned a number one rating. The money the school has collected in research grants, which topped $587 million last year, also contributed to its high position. Though other schools were rated higher in some medical specialties like primary care and internal medicine, HMS topped the list in such specialties as AIDS research and treatment and in pediatric.

The Harvard Business School tied for first with Stanford but received solo top marks in how company recruiters perceive the school.

Though Stanford has an acceptance rate twice as low as Harvard's, HBS grads earn an average of about $'1,500 more their first year out of the school.

The magazine ranked GSE slightly higher than Stanford's School of Education, though the latter tends to attract applicants with higher entrance examination scores and has a better faculty-to-student ratio.