University of Michigan graduate programs received high rankings as part of U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 “Best Graduate Schools” list released Tuesday.
U.S. News ranks business, education, engineering, law, nursing and medical programs annually, while various disciplines and specialties in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and other areas are only ranked periodically.
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Among the programs ranked each year, U-M maintained top-20 rankings in all six categories.
The annual list for U-M programs includes:
• The College of Engineering ranked fifth.
• The School of Nursing master’s program ranked eighth, and its doctor of nursing practice program ranked No. 14.
• The Law School ranked ninth.
• The Stephen M. Ross School of Business ranked No. 10.
• The School of Education ranked No. 11.
• The Medical School’s research program ranked No. 16, and its primary-care program ranked sixth.
Beyond the six major disciplines ranked annually, U.S. News also periodically ranks programs in science, social sciences and humanities, health and many other areas based solely on academic experts’ ratings.
The updated U-M rankings this year are:
• Social work (1)
• Health care management (3)
• Public health (5)
• Public affairs (7)
The Best Graduate Schools rankings are based on expert opinions about program excellence and on statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students.
While the university values the measurements of academic and research performance, U-M officials note that rankings cannot fully account for or capture the university’s mission. What matters most in choosing a school is the match between the particular interests, abilities and ambitions of each student with the specific programs, approaches and opportunities offered by a particular school.
In addition to the overall program rankings, U-M was rated on 72 specialties. Of those, four were ranked first: educational psychology, public policy analysis, social policy and nuclear engineering. Marketing, secondary teacher education and industrial/manufacturing/systems engineering were ranked second.
The specialties that received new rankings this year are:
• Engineering specialties: aerospace (5), biomedical (10), chemical (12), civil (7), computer (6), electrical/electronic/communications (6), environment/environmental/health (3), industrial manufacturing/systems (2), materials (8), mechanical (5) and nuclear (1).
• Nursing specialties: nursing administration (9), nurse practitioner — family (9) and nurse practitioner — adult/gerontology, primary care (10).
• Law specialties: dispute resolution (24), clinical training (6), environmental (35), health care (23), intellectual property (13), international (5), tax (11), trial advocacy (34) and legal writing (14).
• Business specialties: accounting (5), finance (8), management (4), info systems (15), international (8), entrepreneurship (7), part-time MBA (6), executive MBA (5), marketing (2), production (5), nonprofit (5) and supply chain (9).
Also, UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint ranked 109 and 127, respectively, among part-time MBA programs.
• Education specialties: educational administration and supervision (9), educational psychology (1), elementary teacher education (3), secondary teacher education (2), higher education administration (5), education policy (11) and curriculum (6).
• Medical specialties: anesthesiology (7), family medicine (3), internal medicine (6), obstetrics and gynecology (6), pediatrics (13), psychiatry (13), radiology (8) and surgery (6).
• Public affairs specialties: environmental policy and management (8), health policy and management (3), nonprofit management (28), public finance and budgeting (23), public management and leadership (25), public policy analysis (1), social policy (1) and urban policy (11).
