U-M graduate programs remain strong in U.S. News rankings

Graduate programs at the University of Michigan continue to be recognized nationally in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 edition of Best Graduate Schools. The rankings were released earlier this month.

Among the annual rankings of graduate programs and specialties, U-M maintained top-15 rankings in the six areas of business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing.

The list for U-M programs includes:

• The College of Engineering ranked fourth.
• The School of Nursing master’s program ranked ninth, and its Doctor of Nursing Practice program ranked No. 13.
• The Law School ranked ninth.
• The Stephen M. Ross School of Business ranked No. 12.
• The School of Education ranked eighth.
• The Medical School’s research program ranked No. 15, and its primary-care program ranked fifth.

The rankings are based on expert opinions about program excellence and 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.

Beyond the six major disciplines ranked, U.S. News also periodically ranks programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, health and many other areas based solely on academic experts’ ratings.

U.S. News also published new rankings based on peer assessment only for graduate areas in health. These schools and programs are only ranked every three years. The College of Pharmacy was ranked No. 3.

This year, U.S. News also published fresh academic reputation rankings for graduate programs in public affairs, audiology, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, pharmacy, clinical psychology, occupational therapy, nursing midwifery and Master of Fine Arts degrees.

The updated U-M rankings this year include:

• Fine arts (8)
• Public affairs (8)

In addition to the overall program rankings, U-M was rated on 70 specialties. The specialties that received rankings this year are:

• Business specialties — accounting (6), business analytics (21), entrepreneurship (7), executive MBA (10), finance (9), information systems (17), international (7), management (4), marketing (3), nonprofit (7), part-time MBA (6), production/operations (3), project management (3) and supply chain/logistics (10).

• Education specialties — curriculum/instruction (4), education policy (6), educational administration/supervision (9), educational psychology (2), elementary teacher education (2), higher education administration (1), secondary teacher education (4) and special education (19).

• Engineering specialties — aerospace (5), biomedical (9), chemical (11), civil (7), computer (6), electrical/electronic/communications (6), environmental/environmental health (3), industrial/manufacturing/systems (2), materials (7), mechanical (5) and nuclear (1).

• Law specialties — business/corporate law (12), clinical training (8), constitutional law (13), contracts/commercial law (8), criminal law (10), dispute resolution (37), environmental (37), health care (19), intellectual property (13), international (7), tax (11), trial advocacy (59) and legal writing (12).

• Medical specialties — Anesthesiology (6), family medicine (6), internal medicine (6), obstetrics and gynecology (10), pediatrics (12), psychiatry (14), radiology (8), and surgery (5).

• Nursing specialties — Doctor of Nursing Practice nurse practitioner — adult/gerontology/primary care (6), Doctor of Nursing Practice nurse practitioner — family (7), master’s nurse practitioner — family (9), master’s nurse practitioner — pediatric/primary care (6) and nursing midwifery (2).

• Public affairs specialties — environmental policy and management (5), health policy and management (3), international global policy and administration (11), nonprofit management (26), public finance and budgeting (26), public management and leadership (28), public policy analysis (2), social policy (1) and urban policy (16).

• Health school specialties — clinical psychology (10).