Daniels College of Business (DCB) was ranked 57th out of 124 schools in the nation this month, up from 74th two years ago, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, which provides business news on the economy and finances around the world.

Chris MacMillan, the executive director of Strategic Planning and Rankings at DCB, said rankings usually remain relatively stagnant.

“There is very little change in the top 20 schools, but it is impressive [for DCB] to make that much of a move,” she said.

Businessweek identifies top undergraduate programs by looking at student satisfaction, results after graduation and academic quality. To determine this, Businessweek uses nine measures called data points.

Five data points analyze academic quality and include SAT scores, ratio of student to faculty, class sizes, the number of internships students are offered and the amount of hours students spend studying outside of class. DCB ranked 22nd in the nation for academic quality, which accounts for 30 percent of the ranking.

Corporate recruiters for companies that hire DCB graduates were also surveyed. This year they gave the school a higher score, which contributes 20 percent to the final ranking. Another 30 percent is made up of the student satisfaction data point, which didn’t change significantly compared to past years. DCB scored lower on the feeder school and MBA data point, which accounts for 10 percent of the final ranking. Starting salaries form the remaining 10 percent. The school also scored lower for having a high tuition.

“It is very complicated; there are a lot of different factors involved,” said MacMillan. “It’s not only what we do but what other schools do as well. The rankings don’t look at our school in isolation.”

Some students and faculty at DCB consider the more selective application process to be largely responsible for the improvements to the school’s ranking.

“By being selective, you can pull in a higher caliber of individual,” said sophomore Jeff Holden, a DCB student. “And from that individual, testing scores will be higher, performance will increase and jobs they will get out of college will be better. Also, by being selective you are able to limit classroom sizes, which allows for more one-on-one interaction with the professor, and there’s friendliness in the classroom.”

This year, Businessweek also ranked the University of Colorado at Boulder 92nd and Colorado State University 94th.