Photo by Brendan Ross

Flawed though the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings might be, it is still the leading resource for judging the nation’s universities. For better or worse, they matter greatly to parents, students, and school leaders.

As in years past, Georgetown ranked the highest among D.C. schools, retaining its 20 spot from the 2016 list. Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins leads the pack for the greater region, coming in at number 11—a one slot drop from last year.

George Washington University stayed put at number 56, while American University jumped five spots to number 69 this year and the University of Maryland in College Park dropped one spot to number 61.

Though it did not make the top 100 schools, Howard University climbed 14 spots to 110, after making a huge leap last year as well . And further down the list of 311 colleges, Catholic University came in at number 120 and George Mason came in at 140.

In coming up with the national best college list, U.S. World News considered undergraduate academic reputation, student selectivity, faculty resources, graduation and retention rates, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rate performance.

Notable mentions for local schools in other categories include Howard University again ranking second among historically black colleges and universities (after Spelman), Georgetown coming in fourth among best colleges for veterans and international business, and Catholic ranking seventh best for its online graduate nursing programs.

This article has been updated with American University’s actual raking this year at 69, not 74.