U.S. News and World Report ranks four Georgia colleges among the nation's best on an annual list released today.

Emory University, Georgia Tech, Mercer University and the University of Georgia made the list of best national universities for 2017.

Schools are ranked on up to 15 measures of academic quality including graduation and retention rates, expert opinions, faculty and financial resources.

Mercer was new to the list after being reclassified in a 2015 update as a national university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The other three Georgia schools outperformed their previous rankings.

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