Cornell University moved up a place to 14th out of 223 ranked schools in the U.S. News 2018 National University Rankings, tying with Brown University for last place among the Ivy Leagues.
Princeton University was the top-ranked school for the seventh year in a row.
The 2017-18 rankings were published Tuesday to the U.S. News website, a national publisher dedicated to compiling data and publishing rankings to the public on various institutions and industries.
Individual programs within the University received rankings as well, with Cornell ranking seventh in the nation for business and 10th for engineering. The University also holds second place in the nation in plant and animal sciences.
The rankings are created through statistical analysis, with each school given a numerical rating out of 100, according to the U.S. News Rankings website. The schools are then ranked by rating, with ties for those that receive the same rating. Cornell’s rating of 86 tied it with Brown University, Vanderbilt University and Rice University.
According to the website, 77.5 percent of the criteria for the rankings comes from objective statistics. Of this, graduation rate is valued highest. Other categories include class size, student-to-faculty ratio, admissions selectivity and financial resources allocated per student.
This number even includes perceived alumni satisfaction, calculated from the percentage of graduates who have donated to the University within the last five years, according to U.S. News.
The remaining 22.5 percent of the criteria results from undergraduate academic reputation, gathered through peer assessment.
U.S. News sends out assessment requests to officials at similarly ranked institutions, including presidents, provosts and academic deans, according to U.S. News. These officials are asked to evaluate the relative quality of their peer universities. Requests are also sent to counselors at 2,200 high-achieving high schools nationwide.
The U.S. News rankings include numbers outside of academics as well — Cornell placed third nationally for “Best Colleges for Veterans.”
Public University Honors, a website that archives U.S. News rankings, documents this as the first time that Cornell has ranked 14th or higher since 2009.