What are the top 10 graduate schools in the U.S.?

---

Request for Question Clarification by firefly-ga on 23 Apr 2002 09:51 PDT

Are you looking for the top 10 schools in a specific program area? (Medicine, 
Law, business etc.)

U.S. News publishes a annual report on their rankings of the United States top 
ten graduate schools in different areas of education. Most of this information 
is available online at their website:
U.S. News: Best Graduate Schools 2003
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex.htm

However there is more in-depth information that is not available online for 
free and must be purchased. $9.95 gives unlimited access to:
"-the complete data for exclusive rankings of more than 1,000 graduate school 
programs
-interactive sorting capability based on YOUR criteria
-enhanced directory pages for each school, featuring admissions statistics, 
financial aid information, student body demographics, and more!
-extended specialty rankings 
-articles on how to choose the right school"

There is also the printed version of their findings in a 208 page book. It is 
available online for $9.95 and more information about both the online and 
hardcopy book is available at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/about/book.php

Since you did not ask for a specific program or department of top ten graduate 
schools, here is a listing of the top ten for several fields:

(note: these rankings are based off of U.S. News study for 2003)

Top Ten Business Schools:
1. Stanford University (CA)
2. Harvard University (MA) 
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)   
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)  
5. Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL) 
6. Duke University (Fuqua) (NC) 
6. University of Chicago  
8. Columbia University (NY) 
9. Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH) 
10. University of California–Berkeley (Haas)  
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/mba/brief/mbarank_brief.php

Top Ten Education Schools - Research:
1. Stanford University (CA)
2. Harvard University (MA)
2. University of California–Los Angeles 
4. Teachers College, Columbia University (NY) 
5. University of Pennsylvania  
6. University of Wisconsin–Madison  
7. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor  
7. Vanderbilt University (Peabody) (TN) 
9. University of Oregon  
10. Northwestern University (IL) 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/edu/brief/edurank_brief.php

Top Ten Engineering Schools:
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
2. Stanford University (CA) 
2. University of California–Berkeley  
4. Georgia Institute of Technology  
5. University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign  
6. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor  
7. California Institute of Technology  
8. Cornell University (NY) 
8. University of Southern California  
10. Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engrank_brief.php

Top Ten Law Schools:
1. Yale University (CT) 
2. Stanford University (CA) 
3. Harvard University (MA) 
4. Columbia University (NY) 
5. New York University  
6. University of Chicago  
7. University of California–Berkeley  
7.  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor  
7.  University of Pennsylvania  
7.  University of Virginia  
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawrank_brief.php

Top Ten Medical Schools - Research:
1. Harvard University (MA) 
2. Johns Hopkins University (MD) 
3. Washington University in St. Louis  
4. University of Pennsylvania  
5. Duke University (NC) 
6. University of California–San Francisco  
7. Columbia U. College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY) 
8. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor  
9. Yale University (CT) 
10. University of Washington  
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdrrank_brief.php

Top Ten Medical Schools - Primary Care
1. University of Washington  
2. Oregon Health & Science University  
3. University of California–San Francisco  
4. University of New Mexico  
5. University of Massachusetts–Worcester  
6. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill  
7. Harvard University (MA) 
7. University of Rochester (NY) 
9. University of Colorado Health Sciences Center  
9. University of Iowa  
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdprank_brief.php

For Ph.D. Programs (2003), visit 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/phdsci/phdsciindex.htm

For Health (2000/2001), visit 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/hea/heaindex.htm

For Library Science (1999), visit 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/lib/libindex.htm

For Public Affairs (2001), visit 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/pub/pubindex.htm

For The Arts (1997), visit 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/arts/artsindex.htm

U.S. News is not the one and only company doing studies into school rankings. 
Please view the links below for other references and listings as well. Another 
good resource is GradSchools.com which tags itself as the "most Comprehensive 
Online Source of Graduate School Information."
http://www.gradschools.com/


Additional information:

College and University Rankings
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings.htm

Guide to Finding Information about Graduate Schools
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/reference/gradsch.html

American Universities Website Directory
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/CLAS/american-universities.html


Search terms used:

"top ten" grad schools
://www.google.com/search?q=%22top+ten%22+grad+schools

---

Request for Answer Clarification by club185-ga on 25 Apr 2002 11:09 PDT

business.  thanks!

---

Clarification of Answer by researcher-ga on 25 Apr 2002 12:48 PDT

Then you will most definitely want to look at U.S. News' top business
schools at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/mba/brief/mbarank_brief.php

Clicking on the name of the school will give more detail, for example,
the school's website, electronic application (if available),
admission's email and address.

You will also want to check out http://business.gradschools.com/ for
further information about the specific programs of the business
schools you are interested in.

Dear Club185,

Since you did not specify a specialty, I will provide some generic places where 
you can drill down to the specialty of interest to you.

==U.S. New and World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex.htm
This is probably the most well known ranking of U.S. graduate school programs.  
While their article does provide rankings of some of the more popular graduate 
pursuits, it not by any means comprehensive for all disciplines.  They provide 
rankings and specialty rankings for:

Business
Education
Engineering
Law
Medicine
Ph.D: The Sciences
Health
Library Science
Ph.D: Social Science and Humanities
Public Affairs
The Arts

==Gourman Report
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0679783741/102-9206313-4545758
The Gourman Report in not available online but can be purchased from Amazon.com
Some say Gourman's rankings are controversial, and favor large state 
universities.  But I’ve also heard that the U.S. News and World Report 
methodology also favors the larger university research budgets.


==Other Resources – Getting away from pure ranking
Often most people have other considerations to account for besides that a 
graduate program was ranked the best school in the your area according to U.S. 
New and World Report.  Perhaps the best school is 2,500 miles away and your 
significant other isn’t willing to pack up and go there or it’s located in a 
large city, or it’s not located near the beach or a ski resort or it’s just too 
expensive.  Everyone has different criteria and priorities that they must rank 
themselves.  I hope the following resources will assist you in these softer, 
more personal rankings and decisions.  If not these specific publications, 
there is library full of books published on selecting graduate level education 
programs, many of which can be easily found in most bookstores.


Peterson’s Online
http://iiswinprd01.petersons.com/GradChannel/
Peterson’s Guides are another popular publication to get general information 
about graduate schools.  Peterson’s does not rank programs but is rather an 
encyclopedia of thousands of graduate schools.  Their online site provides a 
wizard that guides users to graduate programs by asking users to specify their 
intended field of study and by location.  To view many of Peterson’s offline 
offerings go to:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-9206313-4545758

Thereview.com
http://www.review.com/lobby/search.cfm
This site is provided by Princeton Review a test preparation purveyor.  This 
site also provides the generic school profile information but also has many 
articles that may be of interest to potential graduate school candidates 
like “Practical Concerns” or “Life as a T.A”

Embark.com
http://www.embark.com/grad/choose/search/match.asp?
Cky=True&intPageNr=&blnExpanded=
I found this link off thereview.com but I thought it merited it’s own mention.  
This is another wizard that will help narrow a user’s choice by guiding the 
user through a series of lifestyle questions like what state do you want to go 
to school in, what size city do you want to be located in, what specialty are 
you interested in, etc.

Friends, Colleagues, News Columnists, Neighbors
Often the best information comes from those people we already know, friends, 
present and former co-workers, professors, or articles by columnists we’ve read 
in our prospective specialty.  Asking these folks about recommendations is 
another great route.

==Humor
And when you’ve gone through all the tools and the books and the rankings and 
you just need a laugh, try the following link and go to the “Things you were 
afraid to ask about” section at the bottom:
http://www.cs.umbc.edu/www/graduate/info.html

I hope this information has been of use to you and good luck in your pursuits 
whatever you choose.

Since you are looking for Business Schools, I'm adding this comment as
an MBA alum myself (Columbia).

If you are looking into business schools for yourself, I'd recommend
that you drill down even further than the mass-publication listings
like US News.  The efforts tend to be skewed depending on how the
lengths to which the actual school gets involved each year during
'survey season' (some schools prep their students, faculty, alums, etc
to answer the surveys "properly", while others don't -- for example). 
Or...you'll find those that are running active endowment campaigns to
be very focused on "upping" their standings to rake in more money...
:)

You should take the time to contact the career placement office at
each school and ask for recent performance of the last couple of
classes (especially since we've had a wild ride in the economy
recently) in job placement after school.  Look at the types of
companies that are recruiting on each campus.  While some schools
might not be high on the list THIS year (like Columbia for example,
8th this year, but 3rd when I was there), you'll find that if you're
looking for a job after school on Wall Street in Finance, Investment
Banking, etc, Columbia shouldn't be overlooked.   Other campuses have
stronger programs for marketing, operations mgt, technology, etc.
which attract the respective recruiting companies.

And don't just focus on the stats for jobs right out of school.  I
believe at one point, the average length an MBA stayed in their 1st
job out of school was only 14 months...so look at 5 years out, 10
years out, etc.  They should have some type of data to help you with
the longer term value of the degree in terms of compensation by job
function/industry/etc.

When visiting campuses, MAKE AN INDIVIDUAL APPOINTMENT with the head
of the admissions office --- but ALSO the head of the career services
dept!  And ask tons of questions.  Don't be shy.  They aren't as
inaccessible as you may think.

Good luck & may the force be with you.


P.S.  Once you get in -- your number 1 mission should be: Get to know
as many of the students as possible in the 3 class years (1st & 2nd
years + the incoming class when you're a 2nd year).  You should be
comfortable placing a call to any one of the students in the 3 class
years after you graduate...perhaps not buddies, but no hesitation
about making the call after you find them.

P.P.S. Don't forget the faculty either.