Grad schools fair well in ranking

Two of the University's 12 graduate schools slipped, and two gained ground in U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings of the nation's top graduate schools. The rankings, published last week in U.S. News and World Report, rated three of the University's 12 graduate schools in the top 10, ranking Wharton fourth, the Medical School seventh and the Law School ninth. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences was ranked 33rd. The survey -- compiled from a poll of deans and senior faculty members -- also ranked the University seventh in the Master of Architecture degree awarded by the Graduate School of Fine Arts. GSFA, however, did not make the ranking of schools that award Masters of Fine Arts degrees. Compared with last year, the Engineering School dropped 13 spots from last year's 20th-place ranking, while Wharton slid only one notch. The Med School bettered its ranking from last year by one to seventh, while the Law School jumped up in the ranking by two to ninth. Last year, both schools dropped in the rankings. In a separate ranking of the top medical schools according to specialty, the Med School earned fifth place in both drug and alcohol abuse and geriatric care. The University's School of Social Work was absent from the magazine's ratings of the nation's top ten schools of social work. The magazine, in explaining its methodology, said it surveyed deans, senior faculty and top administrators at accredited schools of social work and fine arts. GSFA Dean Patricia Conway said this week, though, that she never received a questionnaire from the magazine. "I would love to know what happened to mine," Conway said. This year, the magazine did not rate the graduate schools of nursing, education, veterinary medicine or communication. Last year, however, U.S. News and World Report did conduct a survey of nursing schools, in which the University's School of Nursing tied for first place. School of Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington said that although he had not yet seen the rankings, he does not know if they really mean anything. "I think the decision a student makes in evaluating graduate schools is based much more upon the opportunities for being in a good research environment," Farrington said. "We always get exceptionally good students, and in all of my dealings with them I have never heard one of them refer to the rankings," he added. Conway said GSFA's high ranking in the architecture category "delighted" her because the Ivy League schools have extremely competitive architecture programs. "It's not always who you can beat," she said, "But it's also who you end up losing to." Colin Diver, dean of the Law School, said he was pleased to see the Law School moving up in the magazine's rankings, but cautioned against lending too much credence to its findings. "With the appointment of first rate faculty in recent years and the opening of Tanenbaum Hall, they're moving in the right direction," Diver said about this year's ranking. He added, though, that the ratings' criteria change each year, so the rankings are "driven by the formulas they use." "But if they get us up to about sixth or seventh, then I know they're doing something right," Diver said.