Recently, US News National College Rankings were released for 2016, and Northeastern University jumped an astonishing eight spots from our 2015 rank of 47.

When you search online for a college's rank, you sort of have an expectation about what it will be. When you search up Harvard's rank, you don't think probably in the 20s; you expect it to be number one. Now why is that? Have you ever wondered what makes a school rank in the 40s or in the 20s? How do they get these rankings? What are the factors considered?

Is it because a school has been around longer than others? A common myth is that the older the school, the higher ranked it is; many schools prove that myth wrong. So what exactly goes into the ranks?

1. School's reputation

Much of what US News ranks on is the rankings. This tactic is not exclusive to their school rankings but to most of their other ranking lists as well like hospital rankings. These rankings are primarily based on what counselors think of the school.

2. Profile of admitted applicants

What type of student gets in? What are the statistics (GPA and ACT/SAT) of admitted students?

Obviously students with higher statistics have fewer limitations of which schools they have a reasonable shot of getting into; from schools ranked first to every school following that. Students with higher stats who go to the school increase the school's ranking.

3. Does the school accept ACT or SAT scores?

Rankings depend on how much information is given. Usually the schools send in information to US News and what information isn't provided is searched up by US News through secondary sources like the Council for Aid of Education.

4. Retention Rates

How many students transfer out of the school because they didn't like it? Sometimes the school oversells itself and students develop unrealistically high expectations of the school but he school can't deliver.

5. Graduation rates

This goes back to how successful students are and if they are given the resources to succeed.

6. Class size

What are the class sizes? Smaller class sizes boost the ranking for the school. Overpopulation is a huge concern here, which is a reason why many public schools, though fantastic, rigorous and produce highly successful students, are ranked lower. However, this makes sense because larger classes severely damage student learning; its widely known that large classes make it difficult to learn since professors have to generalize their teaching method but students learn in varied ways.

7. Faculty salary

Is the school rewarding its faculty appropriately? If faculty aren't properly awarded, then they might not be doing a good job, which negatively impacts students. Here is chart of average faculty salaries in 2006-2007.

8. Financial Resources provided to student

The more spending a college does on students, the higher the ranking. Colleges that take in money and treat their instutition as more of a business are poorly ranked.

8. Amount of Financial Aid Provided

Can the student afford it? Is the experience worth the price?

10. Amount of Alumni Donations

Alumni donate mostly because they loved their experience at their college and because they are wildly successful and can afford to. Therefore, student success and student experience should be a focus of students.

All in all, the majority of these factors resolve around students and the future success of students.