The newest U.S. News & World Report best colleges rankings place UC Davis 11th among public universities, and 42nd among all universities.

In both instances, UC Davis gained in the rankings. It moved up to 11th for 2010, from 12th last year, among public universities, and to 42nd from 44th last year among public and private universities—tied with UC Santa Barbara in each category. On the latter ranking, UC Davis' highest score ever came in 1996 and 1997 when it placed 40th.

The main reason for the jump in rankings was a 10-point increase (to 38 from 48) in the score on student selectivity, according to UC Davis Students Affairs Research and Information unit. That score reflects the university's acceptance rate, the number of students accepted who were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and the SAT/ACT scores of the accepted students.

Also, UC Davis improved in its graduation and retention rate, which helped to further boost its overall ranking.

Below are the U.S. News & World Report 2010 rankings for all UC campuses in the public and private category:

Campus                 2010                 2009
UC Berkeley             21                     21
UCLA                       24                     25
UC San Diego          35                     35
UC Davis                42                     44
UC Santa Barbara    42                     44
UC Irvine                46                     44
UC Santa Cruz         71                     96
UC Riverside            96                     89 

Note: Chancellor Linda Katehi's former institution, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was ranked 39th nationally in 2010, up from 40th last year.

Other rankings

In other rankings, UC Davis rated 24th in the Sierra magazine's 2009 Cool Schools survey and scored a B+ as a "campus sustainability leader" on the College Sustainability Report Card.

More information:

colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-top-public

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200909/coolschools/allrankings.aspx

http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2009/schools/university-of-califo
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