By Amelia Pak-Harvey

apak-harvey@lowellsu.com

LOWELL — UMass Lowell has reached its highest ranking on the U.S. News & World Report national universities list released Tuesday.

Its new rank at No. 152 is 31 spots higher than the No. 183 placement it had when the school first landed on the list in 2010.

The ranking comes as the university just admitted a freshman class with the highest-ever combined SAT score of 1179. The newest class also has a higher average high-school GPA of 3.59.

The school shares the No. 152 spot with seven other universities, including Illinois State University and Oklahoma State University.

The rankings are the latest in a number of other national lists the school has landed on.

The Chronicle of Higher Education also listed UMass Lowell among its Fastest-Growing Colleges rankings for two years in a row.

The U.S. News and World Report also ranked the school’s online bachelor’s degrees as No. 39 overall in the country earlier this year.

“All of these rankings illustrate the quality and value that UMass Lowell is delivering to students and the academic success they are achieving,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney. “As a university community, we have set high goals for our institution and developed a strategic plan to guide us on our path to becoming a world-class institution.”

For more on this story read Wednesday’s Sun or click on http://www.lowellsun.com