Fresno State was one of 13 California State University campuses named in Forbes’ annual rankings of the top undergraduate institutions in the country.

Fresno State was ranked No. 463 overall which is an improvement from the previous year. The university was ranked No. 488 overall last academic year.

Fresno State has been ranked as high as No. 339, which occured in the 2008 rankings.

The university finished as the sixth best university in the CSU system. Fresno State was ranked behind Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, California Maritime Academy, Cal State Long Beach, Cal Poly Pamona, and Chico State.

The university finished ahead of other institutions such as San Jose State, Cal State Northridge, Sacramento State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State San Bernadino, San Diego State and San Fransisco State.

Forbes ranked each university based off of a list of criteria they assembled. The list used to judge the universities was the quality of teaching, career prospects, graduation rates, low levels of debt for those who graduate, and competitive awards.

The rankings included only 650 universities and as the “Compiling the Forbes/CCAP rankings” methodology packet stated only universities which offered undergraduate degrees or certificates in which students needed four or more years of education to obtain. The packet also stated that only colleges The Carnegie Foundation categorized as Doctorate-granting universities, masters colleges and universities or baccalaureate colleges were included.

Only 610 schools returned from the previous years rankings and this marked the fourth straight year that, Fresno State made Forbes rankings.