U.S. News & World Report released its university rankings on Tuesday, with Tulane University coming in at No. 69 among national universities, going down six spots from No. 63 last year. Over 400 universities were included in the list.

This year’s ranking comes two years after Tulane dropped 29 spots on the list in 2023 after a substantial change in U.S. News methodology shifted to focus more on social mobility and student outcomes. U.S. News no longer uses acceptance rates, alumni giving, class size and high school class rank as factors in determining scores. 

Tulane spokesperson Mike Strecker criticized the rankings for using “blunt measures” that he said do not capture the value of a university. 

“Tulane is experiencing unprecedented growth in every measure of university success, including in the quality of the students and faculty we recruit, the cutting-edge scholarship we pursue, the record-breaking support we receive for our life-saving research, the excellence of the clinical care we provide and the physical expansion of our campuses,” Strecker said. 

Princeton University, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top three spots on the list. 

Tulane grabbed the No. 4 spot for service learning, tying with the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. All Tulane students are required to take two service learning classes during their time in New Orleans, totaling 40 hours. 

U.S. News uses self-reported data from each school in three comprehensive surveys to calculate its rankings. Each school is scored on 17 academic quality factors, including peer assessments from other institutions, faculty resources and standardized tests. 

Student outcomes compose 52% of a school’s score, which U.S News defines as “a school’s success in preparing students for life after college.” To calculate this, U.S. News uses graduation rates, retention rates, student loan debt and earnings after graduation as factors in the metric. 

Tulane was ranked No. 14 in the category of lowest acceptance rate, with an acceptance rate of 14% for the youngest class of 2029.

Tulane ranked at an unimpressive No. 91 for best value. 

Correction: A previous version of this article stated Tulane rose four spots from last year. Tulane ranked No. 73 in 2023.