GW ranked No. 56 in this year’s U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of national universities — the same spot as the year before.

The rank remains unchanged after GW climbed up one slot last year, which was the first year the University moved up since 2012. The University was stripped of its No. 51 ranking and listed as “unranked” five years ago when officials admitted to inflating their admissions statistics for more than a decade.

Last year, GW moved up one spot to No. 56, after falling three slots to No. 57 in 2015 because of slips in student graduation rates, retention and selectivity, according to the report’s author. In 2013, after a year off the list, the University slipped to the No. 52 spot, falling again in 2014 to No. 54.

GW tied with four other universities this year, including University of Connecticut and University of Texas-Austin.

The University ranks below all but two of its peer schools. American University, ranked at No. 69, and Southern Methodist University, ranked at No. 61, are the only peer schools to rank below GW.

Princeton University claimed the top spot in the rankings for the seventh year in a row.

The rankings are determined by university statistics including assessments by administrators at peer schools, first-year retention rate, financial resources and alumni giving, according to its website. Graduation and retention rates and undergraduate academic reputation combine for a total of 45 percent of what factors into the rating process.

This year the U.S. News & World Report also factored how many out of the total degrees given out by universities were in science, technology, engineering and math fields and used that as a variable to calculate the predicted graduation rate for each school in the national universities category.