(Updated, 2:30 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Nine Rhode Island schools made it onto the U.S. News and World Report’s 2012 Best Colleges lists.
U.S. News based its 28th annual ranking, published Tuesday, on mission (i.e. research university), programs and location.
Brown University ranked No. 15 and the University of Rhode Island came in at No. 160 among national universities, a list that is topped by the likes of Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
On the regional universities list for the north – those that have a full range of undergraduate programs, some master’s but few doctoral programs – were six local institutions.
Providence College tied at No. 4 with the College of New Jersey behind front-runner Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Fairfield University in Connecticut, and Loyola University Maryland.
Bryant University ranked No. 16 on the regional list, Salve Regina University, No. 34, Roger Williams University, No. 46, Johnson and Wales University ranked No. 82, and Rhode Island College, No. 122.
The New England Institute of Technology was unranked on the list of regional colleges in the north.
Nearby University of Massachusetts Dartmouth took the No. 82 spot on the regional universities (North) list. Wheaton College in Norton took the No. 62 spot on the National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking while Stonehill College in Easton came in at No. 112.
U.S. News has ranked schools since 1983 based on data such as graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, financial resources, student selectivity and alumni giving. Also playing a part in the calculations is a reputation survey that the magazine sends to top college officials. School officials have criticized the lists as arbitrary and incomplete, but they remain influential.
