The University of Washington was ranked the 11th best public university in the most recent edition of America's Best Colleges released today by U.S. News & World Report.

The UW was ranked 41st overall among national universities both public and private. No other school in the Pacific Northwest was ranked among the top 100 national universities.

The magazine relies on seven categories of information in its assessment:

• Assessment by administrators at peer institutions
• Retention of students
• Faculty resources
• Student selectivity
• Financial resources
• Alumni giving
• Graduation rate

U.S. News also ranked the UW's undergraduate program in engineering at 21 and the undergraduate program in business at 21. The undergraduate business program was ranked 25th last year.

In addition this fall as the rankings season among the nation's magazines unfolds, Sierra Magazine, the official magazine of the Sierra Club, has announced that the UW was chosen among ten schools nationwide it singled out for its efforts to combat global warming. The UW was ranked ninth in the country for its "green" initiatives.

The UW also was recently ranked 16th among 500 universities around the world by Shanghai Jiao Tong University for its academic and research performance. Harvard University was No. 1 on the list, Stanford University No. 2 and eight other spots in the top 16 were claimed by private U.S. universities. The UW was among four public universities in the top 16 with University of California, Berkeley, at No. 3, University of California, Los Angeles, at 13 and University of California, San Diego, at 14. Last year, as with this year, the UW was ranked 16th on the list.