U.S. News and World Report 2013 Graduate Rankings are Out

[levy]

The 2013 USNWR rankings are avaliable here : http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools

It looks like the new rankings are in the areas of Business, Law, Medicine, Engineering, and Education (only). Of course, there is a lot more to consider than rankings, but it is still interesting nonetheless!

[wannabeaphd]

Thanks for posting!I thought it was interesting too. It is helpful to compare rankings from last year to this year's. I was pleased to see my top choice go up 5 spots! And my second choice went down 5 spots, so that is something to take into consideration.

[annieca]

I always try to take rankings with a grain of salt. For example, this year the University of Maryland (College Park) is ranked 5th for Archives and Preservation in Library Science. However (and perhaps a big however), College Park is a hop, skip and a jump from some of the best museums in the country. There are more opportunities for internships and hands-on experience compared to #1 University of Austin.

Well, that and they don't rank Library Science as often so this information is from 2009 for my field.

[eco_env]

and it's pretty rdiiculous that they only rank 10 ecology programs. I found the NRC rankings much more useful. This is a good way to search through the NRC data: http://graduate-school.phds.org/

[Pitangus]

and it's pretty rdiiculous that they only rank 10 ecology programs. I found the NRC rankings much more useful. This is a good way to search through the NRC data: http://graduate-school.phds.org/

Yeah, I don't see the point of just showing us the very top programs. Let's see...Berkeley, Harvard, Chicago, Stanford... how informative! I don't know if there is a longer list behind a paywall somewhere, but either way I prefer the NRC rankings as well.

I like the NRC because they give seperate rankings for different measures, and they are supposedly less reputation-based than US News.

I know some people don't like that the NRC rankings are given as ranges, but I think the ranges are informative without being so unrealistically definite (Program A is #1, Program B is #2, etc).

The big issue with NRC rankings is that they take a long time to be released. The 2010 rankings use data from 2005-2006.

This site provides the rankings in tables by field:

http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124698/

[eco_env]

I know some people don't like that the NRC rankings are given as ranges, but I think the ranges are informative without being so unrealistically definite (Program A is #1, Program B is #2, etc).

This way I can say the program that accepted me is just as good as the programs that rejected me without an interview- since there's a slight overlap in their ranges.

[starmaker]

The problem with the NRC rankings is that the data is ancient by this time. I wish they came out more often, because I find their rankings, and their raw data, valuable.

In many fields (including mine), US News is a straight-up current-reputation measure. That is literally all that is measured. That's why I like it, because I know exactly what I'm getting - no complicated balancing act formula. If I want to check out a program's current reputation, I'll look at US News. If I don't, then I don't care about US News at all.

Edited to add: They didn't do a new CS ranking? #(*&%! I wanted to see how certain programs had moved since the old ranking.

Edited March 16, 2012 by starmaker

[Cici Beanz]

It irks me that US News doesn't have Anthropology ranking.

[Behavioral]

Yay, Business School rankings are out -.-;;