Maclean’s magazine has named Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., the top undergraduate school in Canada.

The university, just across the border from Amherst, N.S., tops the list of 19 participating institutions.

Editors at Maclean’s use a number of different criteria to rank the schools from how much each school spends on programming, to its facilities and first year retention rate.

“We include the results from two large student surveys,” said senior editor Mary Dwyer. “The National Survey of Student Engagement and the other is Canadian University Survey Consortium.  The massive surveys are used to gain student opinion on their schools.”

Acadia University in Wolfville is the highest ranked Nova Scotia school, coming in at number four on the 2013 list.

St. Francis Xavier University ranks seventh on the annual survey followed very closed by St. Mary’s in Halifax tied for 8th.

Mount Saint Vincent University was 17th of the list of 19 schools, just ahead of 18th place Cape Breton University.

Dwyer said the list is used to allow students and their parents to make an informed decision when it comes to picking a school.

“What’s good to know is what your options are and then you can make an informed decision.”

The complete list is available at http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2012/11/01/2013-university-rankings/