Emory inched up one place to claim the 17th spot in the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of the nation’s top universities, released Aug. 16. Emory is now tied with Rice University, which ranked 17th last year as well.

The Goizueta Business School also rose by one place to be ranked 12th among undergraduate business programs.

University President James W. Wagner wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that several specific areas helped Emory move up in the ranks this year from its 2007 ranking of 18, including “improvements in application selectivity (acceptance rate), faculty resources, and alumni giving.”

Emory was ranked 15th in student selectivity, 10th in faculty resources – which includes class size, average faculty compensation, number of full-time faculty and student-faculty ratio – and 17th in financial resources.

The U.S. News rankings are determined by a variety of factors, including peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, financial resources, student selectivity and faculty resources.

Princeton University retained its number one rank, a title it has held for eight consecutive years. Harvard University ranked second, Yale University ranked third and Stanford University came in at number four. The University of Pennsylvania and California Institute of Technology tied for fifth.

For the 2008 edition, the magazine evaluated data compiled from more than 1,400 accredited four-year colleges and universities. U.S. News also made several changes to its ranking methodology, such as the inclusion of the Carnegie Classifications, which are data used for higher-education research.

Another of the changes is the addition of a new variable to its calculation of “graduation rate performance.”

This new variable is the percentage of undergraduate students receiving Pell Grants, which are monetary awards given primarily to students with family incomes under $20,000.

Dean Bentley, director of financial aid, wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that 12 percent of Emory’s undergraduates received Pell grants, a nine percent increase from last year.

Emory also ranked as one of the top 10 universities in economic diversity. Programs such as Emory Advantage help encourage economic diversity by offering a variety of aid options, Bentley wrote.

Wagner wrote that it is imperative to improve the quality of an institution in the interest of positive change, not just to excel at ratings.

“It is our responsibility to remain true to our own vision and plan — to be the best Emory possible, not merely to strive to be better than someone else on some rankings scale — and then to trust that positive growth in that process ultimately will be recognized by ranking agencies,” Wagner wrote.

Jasmine Brown, an incoming College freshman from Los Angeles, said she only looked at the rankings after becoming interested in the school. Brown, who applied via the early decision program, did her own research on the internet before deciding upon Emory.

“I do feel that people look at rankings to determine where they want to go,” she said. “Sometimes when they don’t get accepted, that is when they look at what college is best for them based on their personal interests and what the school has to offer.”

— Contact Mithu Maheswaranathan at mmahesw@learnlink.emory.edu