By Chuck Toney
ctoney@uga.edu
UGA’s College of Education, School of Law and Terry College of Business are listed among  the nation’s top graduate schools in the latest rankings from U.S. News and World Report. The new rankings appear in the 2002 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” and is available online (www.usnews.com) and at newsstands.
The magazine uses a combination of factors, such as reputation, student selectivity, placement success, faculty resources and research activity, to rank graduate schools.
The College of Education at UGA is tied for 22nd with Boston College and the University of Maryland-College Park, up four positions from last year. Five programs--elementary education, secondary education, counseling and personnel services, and curriculum and instruction--are ranked in the top 10.
U.S. News ranks the College of Education among the top 15 at public institutions and in the top four Southern schools, with Vanderbilt, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia. It is the only Georgia school on this year’s list.
“This current ranking will continue to help us earn credibility and recognition for our work nationally and especially in Georgia,” says Louis Castenell, dean of the College of Education.
The UGA School of Law is ranked 27th in the nation, up two positions from the 2001 ranking and tied with Emory University, Boston University, the University of Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis. UGA is ranked 11th among America’s top public law schools and is in the top three of law schools in the Southeast.
“Everyone at the School of of Law--faculty, staff and students--is pleased that we moved up two places in the rankings,” says Dean David Shipley. “All of our indicators of quality, such as student credentials, placement success and faculty productivity, are strong, plus they are improving. Only 13 law schools in the top 25 report a higher GPA ranking for the top quarter of the class. There are many reasons to be optimistic and excited about the future of the law academy.”
The M.B.A. program in the Terry College of Business fell two positions in the 2002 rankings but still remains one of the 50 best business schools in America, according to this report. There are 341 accredited graduate business programs in the United States. Only two public institutions in the Southeast were rated higher.
“The Terry College of Business is consistently ranked among the very best public business schools in the country, as confirmed again by U.S. News,” says Dean P. George Benson. “We are proud of our high standards, student quality and academic reputation.
“We offer our M.B.A. graduates a high return on their investment, with starting salaries averaging over $75,000--a jump of more than $5,000 from last year,” he points out. “And we still have one of the five lowest tuition costs of any top-50 business school.”
Out-of-state tuition and fees for the Terry M.B.A. program in 2000 totalled $13,194. The same costs among business schools in the top 20 ranged from $20,000 to $30,000 annually, according to U.S. News.
In addition to its annual rankings of graduate programs in education, law and business, U.S. News periodically ranks master’s and Ph.D. programs in other disciplines. Included in this year’s report are new rankings for public affairs programs, and UGA again placed among the best in the country.
The university’s master’s program in public administration was ranked sixth among public affairs programs nationwide. In the specialties of public management/administration and public finance and budgeting, UGA ranked third.
The graduate program in public administration is an important component of a proposed new interdisciplinary School of Public and International Affairs at UGA.
“The creation of the new school should further enhance our position among public affairs programs nationally,” says Loch Johnson, Regents Professor of Political Science. |
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