Solano County Business News: UC Davis Graduate Programs Rank High

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

UC Davis Graduate Programs Rank High

News for Faculty and Staff of the University of California, Davis

April 29, 2010

Graduate programs rank high

By Clifton B. Parker

UC Davis received high honors in the newest U.S. News & World Report rankings of graduate and professional schools. Highlights include:
• School of Law — 28th out of nearly 200 accredited schools. It is also the youngest law school in the report’s top 30 rankings.
• Biological sciences — 20th overall among 233 schools.
• School of Medicine — 20th for primary care and 47th in research among 97 and 92 schools ranked, respectively, and 126 schools surveyed.
• Graduate School of Management — the full-time MBA program placed 42nd and the part-time program was 35th out of 99 schools rated and 433 schools surveyed.
• School of Education — 66th out of 179 schools ranked and 279 schools surveyed.
Beyond schools and colleges, other UC Davis programs ranked among the top 30 nationwide include:
• Engineering — 32nd overall out of 198 schools surveyed and ranked; biological and agricultural (5); environmental and environmental health (14); civil (16); biomedical and bioengineering (23); aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical (24); materials (26); and chemical (30).
• Biological sciences — ecology and evolutionary biology (3).
• Earth sciences — 17th overall.
• Mathematics — topology (13).
• Physics — 26th overall.
Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine as professional programs. These ratings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students.
Rankings of other grad programs are done every three years — they are based on reputational surveys of program chairs and grad studies directors.
Universities also receive annual rankings by U.S. News & World Report. While this year’s ratings have not been released, UC Davis last year placed 11th among public universities, and 42nd among all universities. Each increase was a gain on the prior year.