U. grad program ranked 9th in U.S.

Study evaluated nearly 300 schools Following close on the heels of last week's 11th-place undergraduate ranking in U.S. News and World Report, the University's graduate program received a ninth-place overall ranking yesterday by the prestigious National Research Council. The University of California at Berkeley, followed by Stanford, Harvard and Princeton universities filled the survey's top four slots. Nineteen of the University's doctoral programs were ranked among the top 10 in their respective fields -- led by physiology, which was ranked third out of 135 programs. The bioengineering, linguistics and French language and literature programs also ranked in the top five of their fields. The study evaluated the quality of academics and faculty of graduate programs in 41 fields at 274 universities across the nation. University President Judith Rodin said the rankings accurately reflect the quality of the University's programs. "It confirms what we know -- that Penn has outstanding graduate programs," she said. "We will continue to increase the prestige of all of our wonderful graduate programs." Dwight Jaggard, associate dean for graduate education and research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, said he is "absolutely delighted" with the results. "Over 25 percent of our programs were rated in the top 10 and all but one of our programs were rated in the top 25," he said. Jaggard added that the numbers "speak to our excellent faculty and student body and our stellar department." The University's bioengineering program was ranked first in the country in program visibility. University programs in chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science were all ranked in the top 10. Eleven programs in the School of Arts and Sciences were ranked in the top 10 -- including art history, anthropology, English, economics, music, psychology, sociology, Spanish and Portuguese. In addition, English and religious studies were ranked number one in faculty honors and awards, followed by linguistics and music. Janice Madden, vice provost for graduate education, said she would have liked to "see some of the programs rated higher," but said that the administration is satisfied with the results. Still, she said several graduate programs, including philosophy and mathematics, should have received higher ratings. SAS Graduate Studies Associate Dean Walter Licht said in a statement that "these results are all the more laudatory because of our highly talented faculty." "Many of our programs have far fewer faculty than other programs in the same field," he said. "Because of their smaller size, some of our programs specialize in subfields and are widely recognized as being among the best in their field in those specializations." The National Research Council is an independent organization chartered by Congress. Published Monday, its four-year, 740-page study is entitled "Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States." The study was last conducted in 1982. Unlike other studies, NRC's rankings do not account for criteria such as tuition value for money. Each program was evaluated by 100 to 200 faculty members who the research universities identified as active scholars in the field.