STATESBORO — Georgia Southern University has once again been named one of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News and World Report.

Georgia Southern, which boasts an enrollment of more than 20,000 students from 49 U.S. states and more than 100 countries, is featured in the 2013 rankings released this week. GSU is in the national university category, highlighting the top 270 public and private universities in the country.

“We are excited that Georgia Southern University has once again been recognized as one of America’s Best Colleges,” said Brooks Keel, president of Georgia Southern University.  “As the largest university in south Georgia, Georgia Southern is not only educating future leaders, but serving as an economic engine for the state. To be recognized among the best is a testament to the hard work and dedication of Georgia Southern’s faculty and staff.”

There are 280 national universities—172 public, 101 private and 7 for profit—based on the 2010 basic categories established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. National universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and Ph.D. programs. In many cases, they place strong emphasis on research and receive federal money to support their research endeavors.

To determine the rankings, U.S. News and World Report first places each school into a category based on its mission (research university or national liberal arts college). It then gathers data from and about each school in 16 areas related to academic excellence.

Each indicator is assigned a weight (expressed as a percentage) based on the publication’s judgments about which measures of quality matter most. Lastly, each college is ranked based on their composite weighted score.