1. AAU Membership Metrics
Non-member universities whose research and education profile exceeds that of a number of current members may be invited to join the association; current members whose research and education profile falls significantly below that of other current members or below the criteria for admission of new members will be subject to further review and possible discontinuation of membership.
Source:

2. AAU Phase 1 Indicators The evaluation of university profiles based on the Membership Indicators is the first stage of a two-stage process used to identify institutions that may be invited into membership.
Competitively funded federal research support
Membership in the National Academies (NAS, NAE, IOM)
Faculty awards, fellowships, and memberships
Citations: Thomson Reuters InCitesTM

6. AAU Phase 2 Indicators The second stage involves a more qualitative set of judgments about an institution’s mission, characteristics, and trajectory.
USDA, state, and industrial research funding:
Doctoral education:
Number of postdoctoral appointees:
Undergraduate education:

12. USNews University Ranking Indicators
Graduation and retention rates (22.5 percent):
six-year graduation rate (80 % of the score)
first-year retention rate (20 %).
Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5 percent):
academic peer assessment survey
surveyed of counselors at public high schools
Faculty resources (20 percent):
class size is (40 % of this measure)
faculty salary (35 %) is the average faculty pay, plus benefits
proportion of professors with the highest degree in their fields (15 %)
student-faculty ratio (5 %)
proportion of faculty who are full time (5 %). 
Student selectivity (12.5 percent):
critical reading and math portions of the SAT and the composite ACT score (65 %)
proportion of first-year students who graduated in the top 10% of their high school classes (15 %)
ratio of students admitted to applicants (10 %)
Financial resources (10 percent):
average spending per student on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures
Graduation rate performance (7.5 percent): 
difference between a school's six-year graduation rate versus predicted for the class.
Alumni giving rate (5 percent):
average percentage of living alumni with bachelor's degrees who gave to their school