Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is tied for 2nd in the nation, according to new graduate and professional rankings released today by U.S. News and World Report magazine. It is the highest ranking in the school’s history. In all, U.S. News has ranked 18 of Washington University’s graduate and professional programs in the top 10 of their respective fields, and 46 graduate and undergraduate programs in their top 25.
“We are proud of the medical school’s ranking, especially for our faculty who provide outstanding research, teaching and patient care,” said William A. Peck, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “It also is a fitting tribute to our students who have been rated as the top students in the country for six consecutive years.”
The School of Medicine was ranked 3rd in 2002 and has placed in the top 10 every year since the annual rankings began in 1987. It has ranked 1st in student selectivity a measurement of student quality based on Medical College Admission Test scores, undergraduate grade-point average and the proportion of applicants selected every year since 1998.
In this year’s overall standings, the medical school placed after first-ranked Harvard and tied with Johns Hopkins, followed by Duke, University of California-San Francisco, Columbia, Stanford and Yale. Individually, the school’s Internal Medicine program ranked 4th in the nation, while Pediatrics tied for 6th, Drug and Alcohol Abuse placed 9th and Women’s Health tied for 9th. AIDS and Health Service Administration both placed 15th, and Geriatrics was ranked 17th in the nation.
The Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science boasted dramatic improvement, rising five spots to tie for 16th in the nation. The program, founded only in 1997, recently moved into a new, state-of-the-art research and teaching facility, The Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering. Overall, the School of Engineering ranked 35th in the nation.
The School of Art also rose five spots, to tie for 21st in the nation, with the sculpture program named 13th.
“We are extremely honored by the growing national reputation of our graduate program,” said Jeff Pike, dean of the School of Art. “It is a testament to the energy and talent of our superb faculty and students, and reflects their ongoing determination to engage the school in the broader intellectual conversations of academic and professional life.”
The School of Law again tied for 25th in the nation, with its Clinical Training program placing 6th and Trial Advocacy tied for 17th. The Olin School of Business tied for 29th in the nation, with the Olin Executive MBA program ranked 23rd. The Department of Education tied for 49th.
The 2004 edition of the guidebook America’s Best Graduate Schools hits newsstands Monday, April 7. Many of the rankings categories also will appear in the April 14 edition of U.S. News & World Report, which goes on sale that same day.
Editor’s note: A complete set of Washington University rankings has been prepared from U.S. News data and is available at: http://news-info.wustl.edu/rankings/rankings2003.html. This review sheet includes the most recent rankings conducted for each area. U.S. News does not rank every category every year, and some rankings date back as far as 1997.