USC dropped one spot in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges

USC ranks 22 in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges, down from 21 last year.

U.S. News made two major changes in its ranking methodology this year. It completely removed the acceptance rate from the ranking calculations. It also added a new factor named social mobility.

In the last year's ranking, acceptance rate, a factor of student excellence evaluation, was weighted 1.25 percent. This year, U.S. News no longer considers acceptance rate as a factor.

This year, the newly created indicator, social mobility, is weighted at five percent. It measures the ability of low-income students to succeed at an institution by comparing Pell Grant graduation rates with all other students, according to U.S. News.

U.S. News measures a school's six-year graduation rate among Pell Grant students who started college in 2011. A school with a higher Pell Grant graduation rate scores better. It also compares this rate with the school's six-year graduation rate among non-Pell Grant students who started college in 2011. A school with lower Pell graduation rate gets a lower score.

According to U.S. News, the social mobility indicator reflects "each school's performance at supporting students from underserved backgrounds."

Here is a chart of all changes made in this year's US News ranking methodology