Kent State moves up the charts on one of the most widely recognized college ranking lists.

The 2018 Best Colleges list, released by U.S. News & World Report annually, ranked Kent State at 176 in National Universities. This is a jump of 12 spots from the previous year, when it ranked in at 188.

“Recognition as one of the nation’s best universities affirms the excellence of our exceptional academic programs and the outstanding work of our faculty, students, staff and alumni,” University President Beverly Warren said in a prepared statement from the university which was released Tuesday morning.

The report examines over 1800 colleges and universities nationwide and separates them into four rankings: National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges, according to its website.

U.S. News and World Report formulates their rankings based on a number of criteria, including graduation and retention rates, financial and faculty resources, the academic reputation of the school’s undergraduate program and how selective a school is in accepting students.

It also looks at factors such as ethnic diversity on campus and the cost of tuition and housing. The overall goal is to “take some of the stress out of the school research and selection process and help students find a college that’s a good fit,” according to its website.

Kent’s neighboring school, the University of Akron, didn’t make it into the top 200, but did earn a tie for 249th in business schools and a tie for 162nd in engineering schools.

Nicholas Hunter is the academic affairs reporter. Contact him at [email protected].