U.S. News & World Report released graduate school rankings last week, but Penn officials say the results are not wholly indicative of its graduate schools' achievements.
Among the more significant changes are the School of Engineering and Applied Science's drop from 29th to 32nd in the nation and the School of Medicine's jump from fourth to third.
The Wharton School's graduate division fell to third from second.
Graduate school officials say they are reluctant to accept the rankings as thorough or accurate, though.
Sampath Kannan, the associate dean of the School of Engineering, said U.S. News' ranking system puts the school at a disadvantage because it is relatively small.
He said larger schools, such those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California at Berkeley, are able to hire faculty that are exclusively research-oriented, boosting their rankings.
He added that he does not see the rankings as a measure of graduate schools' worth.
Furthermore, he said Penn is disadvantaged in the rankings because of its interdisciplinary approach to graduate education.
"We set up our research agendas to do work with other departments," he said. "It has a slightly negative effect on rankings."
Kannan said this year's drop in the rankings is "statistically insignificant" and that the school's rank fluctuates from year to year as funding changes.
Penn's Graduate School of Education Dean Susan Fuhrman said the rankings tend to fluctuate, adding that U.S. News changes its ranking methods frequently.
GSE maintained its ranking as seventh in the nation this year.
Fuhrman said she was pleased with the school's placement in the top 10 and that the education graduate-school rankings are "tight at the top."
Penn Law School Dean Michael Fitts, whose school was also ranked seventh for the second consecutive year, said he is happy that Penn Law is highly ranked.
However, he added that "rankings don't capture all the nuances of institutions" and that different law schools have strengths and weaknesses that the ranking system does not reflect.
However, Fitts acknowledged that rankings do affect student decisions about which graduate school to attend, but added that students often "overread them."
Regardless of its flaws, Kannan said the ranking system is important because certain students look at it seriously. He said the School of Engineering has made efforts to raise its rank for this reason.
The school has also added a few faculty who only do research, he said, but he added that they are in place to do research, not boost the rankings.
Nevertheless, he said the school "would like to see our rankings go up."
'06 'US News' grad school rankings Previous rankings in brackets - Wharton: 3 [2] - Education: 7 [7] - Law 7 [7] - Engineering: 32 [29] - Medicine: 3 [4]
