U.S. News recently released its 2014 rankings of the best graduate schools in the country. The data includes information on programs for history, education, engineering, science, and a plethora of others. It also ranks programs by specialties. We’ll discuss some specific data points in next week’s entry, but first, it’s worth shedding some light upon the methodologies that were used to rank several important disciplines:
- Science programs: Rankings for mathematics and science programs were based on surveys sent to university departments. Participants, who included department heads and directors of graduate studies, were asked to rate all of the institutions included in the study, and these ratings were then averaged and ranked. (Fun fact: Statistics programs had the highest overall response rate of any mathematics or science program surveyed. No surprise that those who work in statistics would be eager to submit data for a study!)
- Education programs: Multiple factors of varying weight were taken into account to rank education programs, including: Mean GRE scores, peer rankings from program deans, ratings from school superintendents nationwide, acceptance rates, and research expenditure per faculty.
- Engineering programs: Similar to the rankings for education programs, the rankings for engineering programs consisted of several components: Mean GRE scores, peer rankings from deans, recruiter feedback, the percentage of faculty who were members of the National Academy of Engineering, and acceptance rates.
In addition to providing new rankings for programs that are reviewed annually such as education, engineering, and business, this year U.S. News also updated its rankings for the programs that it only evaluates once every few years: social sciences and humanities, Ph.D. programs in disciplines such as economics, political science, and psychology, and master’s programs in library and information studies.
The rankings by program and by specialty provide a lot of insight into what makes a particular school unique, and what it values in its applicants and students. Check out all of U.S. New’s 2014 rankings here, and check back next week for more commentary on this year’s data!
