The University of Georgia is one of the two 16th-best public national universities in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report.

UGA has hovered around and usually just inside the top 20 for years, but this year’s tie for no. 16 with Ohio State University is the highest U.S. News ranking ever for UGA.

According to a UGA press release, an increase in selectivity contributed to UGA’s rise in the rankings. This year, 55 percent of UGA first-year students were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, up from 53 percent last year. An increase in alumni giving during UGA’s $1.2 billion capital campaign also helped, according to UGA’s announcement of its place in the new rankings.

UGA was ranked no. 54 overall among all national universities; the U.S. News rankings are dominated by private colleges and universities.

Princeton topped the overall list, followed by Harvard University and the University of Chicago and 17 other private schools. The top 20 ranked schools are private universities.

Two California universities, The University of California-Los Angeles and the University of California-Berkeley, tied for no. 1 in the U.S. News public schools list. In the overall list, the two California schools were in a four-way tie at no. 21 with Atlanta’s Emory University and the University of Southern California.

One other Georgia university made the "top public university" list – Georgia Tech, at no. 7 – and one other Southeastern Conference school, the University of Florida, is in a three-way tie for no. 9 on the public university list.

The SEC’s only private university, Vanderbilt, was in a four-way tie for no. 14 on the overall universities list.

UGA has also made the top 20 lists of some other publications. Forbes ranked UGA at 17 on a combined athletic-academic ranking, Kipling put UGA at No. 10 on its "best value" list of public colleges and universities, and UGA was No. 10 on a New York Times list of universities doing the most for low-income students.

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