Eastern Connecticut State University broke the top 100—placing 92nd—among regional universities in the North in U.S. News and World Report’s 2016 edition of “Best Colleges.” Eastern was also the 27th public university on the list. The annual rankings were released on Sept. 9.

Eastern was the highest ranked university among the four Connecticut state universities, and this year’s ranking was Eastern’s best ever.

Regional universities such as Eastern are ranked on the basis of 16 criteria that include peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. The North Region includes colleges and universities from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

“I was very pleased to see Eastern achieve its highest ranking ever in this year’s U.S. News and World Report’s 2016 Best Colleges report,” said Eastern President Elsa Núñez. “Our commitment to academic rigor; the hiring of additional full-time faculty; and the relevance of our majors to Connecticut’s economy have resulted in strong scores for such criteria as academic reputation, student selectivity, faculty resources and alumni giving. Students and parents turn to the Best Colleges rankings to help them make important decisions about where to attend college.  These newly released rankings reaffirm that Eastern is providing a valued, affordable liberal arts education in a residential campus setting.”

This year’s U.S. News and World Report rankings included reviews of 1,376 schools nationwide and are available at www.usnews.com/colleges. They will also be published in the Best Colleges 2016 Guidebook, published by U.S. News & World Report and available on newsstands in late September.

Over the past two decades, the U.S. News and World Report rankings, which group colleges based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, have grown to be the most comprehensive research tool for students and parents considering higher education opportunities.