Pulled from saikobee's branch.

doc/UltiSnips.txt

@@ -335,12 +335,17 @@ You can also redefine the search path on a buffer by buffer basis by setting
 the variable b:UltiSnipsSnippetDirectories.  This variable takes precedence
 over the global variable.
 
-UltiSnips searches in 'runtimepath' for snippet directories but traverses
-'runtimepath' in reverse order (last item first). If you would like to have
-UltiSnips traverse 'runtimepath' in the standard order, add this to your vimrc
+UltiSnips searches in 'runtimepath' for snippet directories and attempts to
+determine if 'runtimepath' should be traversed in normal or reverse order. If
+you would like to override the order UltiSnips detected for 'runtimepath', add
+this to your vimrc
 file: >
+   " Traverse in normal order
    let g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath="1"
 
+   " Traverse in reverse order
+   let g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath="0"
+
 By default, whenever a snippet expand is triggered, UltiSnips will check for
 modifications to the snippet file associated with the filetype and reload it
 if necessary. This behavior can be disabled as follows: >
@@ -1391,6 +1396,7 @@ Contributors listed in chronological order:
    Jonas Diemer - diemer
    Romain Giot - rgiot
    Sergey Alexandrov - taketwo
+   Brian Mock - saikobee
 
 
 8.2 Snippets                                       *UltiSnips-contrisnippets*

plugin/UltiSnips/__init__.py

@@ -16,6 +16,47 @@ from UltiSnips.text_objects import SnippetInstance
 from UltiSnips.util import IndentUtil
 import UltiSnips._vim as _vim
 
+def _plugin_dir():
+    """ Calculates the plugin directory for UltiSnips. This depends on the
+    current file being 3 levels deep from the plugin directory, so it needs to
+    be updated if the code moves.
+    """
+    d = __file__
+    for i in xrange(10):
+        d = os.path.dirname(d)
+        if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(d, "plugin")) and os.path.isdir(os.path.join(d, "doc")):
+            return d
+    raise Exception("Unable to find the plugin directory.")
+
+def _snippets_dir_is_before_plugin_dir():
+    """ Returns True if the snippets directory comes before the plugin
+    directory in Vim's runtime path. False otherwise.
+    """
+    paths = [ os.path.expanduser(p).rstrip(os.path.sep)
+        for p in _vim.eval("&runtimepath").split(',') ]
+    home = _vim.eval("$HOME")
+    def vim_path_index(suffix):
+        path = os.path.join(home, suffix).rstrip(os.path.sep)
+        try:
+            return paths.index(path)
+        except ValueError:
+            return -1
+    try:
+        real_vim_path_index = max(vim_path_index(".vim"), vim_path_index("vimfiles"))
+        return paths.index(_plugin_dir()) < real_vim_path_index
+    except ValueError:
+        return False
+
+def _should_reverse_search_path():
+    """ If the user defined g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath then return True
+    or False based on the value of that variable, else defer to
+    _snippets_dir_is_before_plugin_dir to determine whether this is True or
+    False.
+    """
+    if _vim.eval("exists('g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath')") != "0":
+       return _vim.eval("g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath") != "0"
+    return not _snippets_dir_is_before_plugin_dir()
+
 def err_to_scratch_buffer(f):
     @wraps(f)
     def wrapper(self, *args, **kwds):
@@ -968,8 +1009,7 @@ class SnippetManager(object):
 
         paths = _vim.eval("&runtimepath").split(',')
 
-        if _vim.eval("exists('g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath')") == "0" or \
-           _vim.eval("g:UltiSnipsDontReverseSearchPath") == "0":
+        if _should_reverse_search_path():
             paths = paths[::-1]
 
         for rtp in paths: