The University is now ranked 42nd, moving down one spot from last year, in the U.S. News & World Report’s National University ranking for 2015.

The University is in a four-way tie, sharing the position with Boston University, Northeastern University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of California-Irvine. 

Last year, the University was ranked 41st in a six-way tie with Boston University, Lehigh University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In the category of public schools, the University retained its rank of 11th, in a tie with University of California—?Irvine. Last year, the University shared the spot with University of California-Santa Barbara and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

U.S. News and World Report ranks national universities each year based on a variety of factors including freshman retention rate, graduation rate and strength of faculty, according to their website. Academic programs were also ranked, with the University coming in first place for civil engineering, biological/agricultural engineering and engineering science/engineering physics.

Like last year, the top three schools in the National University rankings are Princeton University in first, Harvard University in second and Yale University in third.