News releases

April 24, 2023

UW graduate and professional disciplines place highly in US News’ Best Graduate Schools rankings

The University of Washington’s graduate and professional degree programs were widely recognized as among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best Graduate Schools rankings released late Monday.

While the UW celebrates the success and impact of the programs recognized by U.S. News — and many applicants use these rankings to help them select schools and discover potential areas of study — the University also recognizes shortcomings inherent in the ranking systems.

In the past year, the UW School of Law and the UW School of Medicine withdrew from the U.S. News rankings citing concerns that some of the methodology in the rankings for those specific disciplines incentivize actions and policies that run counter to the schools’ public service missions. U.S. News announced last week that rankings for law and medicine will be published at a later date due to “an unprecedented number of inquiries” received from schools.

UW leaders will continue to work with U.S. News and other ranking organizations — to the extent they are open to it — to improve their methodologies. And schools, colleges and departments continually reevaluate the benefits and potential shortfalls of participating in specific rankings.

“Our public University is committed to delivering a world-class education and training to the talented graduate and professional students who come here to pursue their academic and career goals. We measure our success first and foremost by the impact their students and alumni make in Washington and throughout the world,” said UW President Ana Mari Cauce. “These rankings, which are just one of many metrics of success, reflect the UW’s leadership in providing outstanding graduate and professional degree programs.”

Dozens of UW schools and departments placed prominently in the 2024 rankings — excluding the School of Law and the School of Medicine, 35 placed in the top 10, and more than 75 in the top 35.

In new rankings released this year, the UW leads the nation in public affairs, nursing, physics, education, computer science, public health and Earth sciences, according to U.S. News.

The UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade and tied for eighth place with the University of Chicago. The Evans School’s environmental policy program tied for second in the nation with Duke University, nonprofit management was ranked No. 5 and public finance and budgeting came in at No 9.

This year’s rankings solidified UW leadership in the health sciences: The UW School of Nursing held the No. 1 overall ranking for a public school offering a doctor of nursing practice program, and nursing schools at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma again collectively tied for No. 1 among public schools that offer a master’s degree. The School of Public Health tied for No. 5, and had four programs — biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology and social behavior — in the top 10. Previous year’s rankings placed the School of Social Work at No. 2 and the School of Pharmacy at No. 7. Schools offering dentistry programs are not ranked by U.S. News.

The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering this year tied for fifth place overall alongside University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and three programs ranked in the top 10, including programming language at No. 5, and artificial intelligence and systems both at No. 7.

Five programs from the College of Education placed in the top 10 and the College of the Environment was recognized with five-way tie for the No. 9 spot in Earth sciences. The College of Arts & Sciences’ nuclear physics department tied for No. 3 with Stony Brook University, joining statistics in the ranking’s top 10.

In some cases, such as the College of Arts & Science and the Foster School of Business, U.S. News ranks several professional disciplines housed within academic units. The rankings below are based on preliminary data and may be updated. Information about U.S. News & World Report’s methodology can be found here.

TOP 10:

Public Affairs (environmental policy): Tie for 2nd

Library and Information Studies (overall): Tie for 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Library and information studies (digital librarianship): Tie for 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Library and Information Studies (information systems): 2nd (ranked in 2022)

School of Social Work (overall): Five-way tie for 2nd (ranked in 2019)

Nurse practitioner (doctor of nursing practice): Three-way tie for 2nd

Physics (nuclear): Tied for 3rd

Nursing master’s (overall): Tie for 4th

Library and Information Studies (library services for children and youth): Tie for 5th (ranked in 2022)

Education (secondary education): 5th

Education (elementary education): Tie for 5th

Public Affairs (nonprofit management): 5th

School of Public Health (overall): Three-way tie for 5th

Psychology (clinical): Three-way tie for 5th (ranked in 2021)

Computer science (overall): Tie for 5th

Computer science (programming language): Tie for 5th

Nurse practitioner (pediatric acute care): Tie for 5th (ranked in 2022)

Nurse practitioner (pediatric primary care): Tie for 5th

Public Health (biostatistics): 6th

Computer science (artificial intelligence): 7th

Computer science (systems): 7th

Pharmacy: Six-way tie for 7th (ranked in 2021)

Statistics: Tie for 7th (ranked in 2022)

Evans School of Public Policy & Governance (overall): Tie for 8th

Public Health (environmental health sciences): 8th

Nurse midwifery: Three-way tie for 8th (ranked in 2021)

Public Health (epidemiology): 9th

Speech-language pathology: Six-way tie for 10th (ranked in 2022)

Geophysics: Three-way tie for 9th

Earth sciences: Five-way tie for 9th

Education (special education): 9th

Public Affairs (public finance and budgeting): 9th

Education (curriculum/instruction): Tie for 10th

Education (administration/supervision): Three-way tie for 10th

Public Health (social behavior): 10th

 

TOP 25:

Biological sciences: Three-way tie for 23rd (ranked in 2022)

Business (full-time MBA): 20th

Business (information systems): Three-way tie for 17th

Business (marketing): Six-way tie for 23rd

Business (part-time MBA): Tie for 11th

Chemistry (analytical): Four-way tie for 16th

Chemistry: Three-way tie for 24th

Chemistry (inorganic): Three-way tie for 22nd

Computer science (theory): 11th

College of Education (overall): Two-way tie for 11th

Education (policy): 14th

College of Engineering (overall): 25th

Engineering (aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical): 17th

Engineering (biomedical): Four-way tie for 14th

Engineering (chemical): Three-way tie for 24th

Engineering (computer): Three-way tie for 13th

Engineering (civil): Six-way tie for 19th

Engineering (electrical): Seven-way tie for 16th

Engineering (industrial/manufacturing/systems): Six-way tie for 21st

Engineering (environmental/environmental health): Four-way tie for 21st

Engineering (mechanical): Five-way tie for 28th

Health care management (School of Public Health): Three-way tie for 16th

Mathematics (applied math): 21st

Nurse practitioner (family): 12th

Physics (overall): 20th

Public Health (health policy and management): 12th

Public Affairs (leadership): 11th

Public Affairs (local government management): Four-way tie for 24th

Public Affairs (public policy analysis): 13th

Public Affairs (social policy): 15th

Psychology: Seven-way way tie for 23rd (ranked in 2022)

Library and Information Studies (school library media): Tie for 11th (ranked in 2022)

Sociology (overall): Three-way tie for 20th (ranked in 2022)

Sociology (population): Tie for 15th (ranked in 2022)

 

TOP 35:

Business (accounting): Five-way tie for 29th

Business (analytics): Four-way tie for 34th

Business (management): Nine-way tie for 27th

Business (executive MBA): Four-way tie for 27th

Engineering (materials engineering): Three-way tie for 34th

English: Seven-way tie for 32nd (ranked in 2022)

History: Four-way tie for 34th (ranked in 2022)

Mathematics: Three-way tie for 27th

Political science: Three-way tie for 34th (ranked in 2022)

 

For more information, contact Victor Balta at balta@uw.edu.

Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of Education • College of the Environment • Evans School of Public Policy & Governance • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Rankings • School of Nursing • School of Pharmacy • School of Public Health • School of Social Work • UW Bothell • UW Tacoma

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