Best National Universities
1. Princeton University (N.J.)
2. Harvard University (Mass.)
3. University of Chicago (Ill.)
3. Yale University (Conn.)
5. Columbia University (N.Y.)
5. Stanford University (Calif.)
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. Duke University (N.C.)
9. University of Pennsylvania
10. Johns Hopkins University (Md.)
*Georgia Schools
20. Emory University
34. Georgia Institute of Technology
56. University of Georgia
135. Mercer University
Four Georgia colleges are among the nation's best, U.S. News and World Report says in its annual list of top universities.
Emory University, Georgia Tech, Mercer University and the University of Georgia made the list of best national universities for 2017, released Tuesday.
Schools are ranked on up to 15 measures of academic quality including graduation and retention rates, expert opinions, faculty and financial resources. This year, 231 schools received numerical rankings. Another 66 schools were recognized, but in alphabetical order.
Mercer — which tied with seven other schools for No. 135 on the list — was a new arrival, having been reclassified in a 2015 update as a national university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the most widely accepted higher education classification system. The other three Georgia schools outperformed their previous rankings.
The list ranked public and private schools together.
Emory, tied with Georgetown University and the University of California-Berkeley, moved one space to 20 from 21 on the 2016 list, released last year. Georgia Tech, tied with Brandeis University in Massachusetts, was 34, up from 36. UGA, tied with three other schools, moved to 56 from 61 a year ago. Emory, UGA and Georgia Tech had freshman retention rates of at least 94 percent and graduation rates last year of at least 85 percent. Mercer reported an 83 percent freshman retention rate and a 61 percent graduation rate.
UGA officials said the university benefited from an improved academic peer assessment rating. That used opinions from presidents, provosts and deans at peer institutions.
This year’s edition of the list includes data on more than 1,800 colleges and rankings of 1,376 schools.
Five Georgia schools ranked among the best Historically Black Colleges and Universities, with Spelman topping the list, as it did last year. Others were Morehouse College (4), Clark Atlanta University (18), Fort Valley State University (31) and Savannah State University (47).
Berry College in Rome was listed as the seventh-best regional college in the South.
Emory University ranked 17 for best value among national universities, with 21 percent of the school’s undergraduate students receiving need-based Pell Grants. Georgia Tech (7) and the University of Georgia (18) were listed among the top 30 public universities.
The rankings are coveted and highly touted by colleges and have long been used by some parents and students to compare schools before enrolling.
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