UCLA ranks 23rd nationally, edges out USC in 2015 college rankings

UCLA was ranked the 23rd-best university in the country again in the widely regarded 2015 U.S. News and World Report college rankings released Monday.

The university was ranked two slots above USC, its crosstown rival. Last year, UCLA was tied for 23rd with USC, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Virginia and Wake Forest University.

U.S. News and World Report ranked UCLA ahead of USC for decades until the 2011 rankings, when USC pulled ahead to 23rd place while UCLA was ranked 25th. The two universities maintained their positions in the 2012 rankings before being tied in the past two.

In the 2015 rankings, UCLA was tied with only the University of Virginia for the 23rd spot, while USC and Carnegie Mellon University tied for 25th. UCLA and the University of Virginia also tied for second place in the “Top Public Schools” ranking, falling behind UC Berkeley again.

The U.S. News & World Report rankings grade colleges based on an annual survey that collects data on more than a dozen factors, including undergraduate academic reputation, freshman retention rate, faculty resources, school selectivity, financial resources and alumni donation rates.

Princeton University, Harvard University and Yale University took the first, second and third places in the rankings respectively.

Compiled by Sam Hoff, Bruin senior staff.