Penn graduate schools showed slight improvements in this year’s U.S. News and World Report graduate school rankings released Tuesday.
The School of Nursing ranked first overall, tied with Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington. The School of Medicine and the Wharton School ranked second among research institutions and third overall, respectively.
Penn Med’s ranking “reflects the efforts of our faculty and their commitment to prepare the next generation of young men and women for a rewarding career in clinical medicine and biomedical research,” Dean of the Medical School Arthur Rubenstein said in a press release.
“The fact that we have been ranked second for research two years in a row sets the tone that this is not going to happen once and go away,” Senior Vice Dean for Medical Education Gail Morrison said.
“We felt this rank gave credit to the success of the faculty in getting research grants as well as the great quality of the students we attract,” she said, adding that these are both factors that the U.S. News and World Report uses to create its rankings.
The Medical School was also ranked ninth for best primary care.
Business students say they are proud of Wharton’s third-place rank, which is an improvement from fifth place last year.
“Wharton’s ranking did influence my decision to come here,” second-year Masters of Business Administration student Lauren Miller wrote in an e-mail. However, she added that “Wharton’s brand stands even ahead of its rankings, which change year to year.”
Check out the complete list of graduate school rankings here.
“I don’t think it’s any surprise to see the Wharton program or Penn Medicine do so well,” third-year Graduate School of Education student Maher Zamel, the chair of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly said. “They have historically been Penn’s flagship programs and tend to be very successful in branding themselves as such in their respective fields.”
U.S. News and World Report ranked Penn Law School seventh, the Graduate School of Education 12th and the School of Engineering and Applied Science 22nd.
“Clearly the education school would like to do even better. We clearly would like to crack the top 10,” School of Education assistant Dean Thomas Kecskemethy said, although he is “extremely pleased with the quality and quantity of applicants.”
While Zamel said the U.S. News and World Report rankings should be taken “with a grain of salt,” he said “some of our schools should pay closer attention to these rankings because of how much they influence student perceptions of their respective school’s performance.”
“Lower rankings … may affect a school’s tendency to recruit the most talented students,” he said. “I feel that some of our schools need to pay closer attention to these indicators.”
Note: This article was updated from its original version to reflect that the Nursing School ranked first overall, tied with Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington.
