University Times

Rankings for Pitt’s graduate programs fell or stayed the same in U.S. News & World Report’s latest list of the nation’s top graduate schools. U.S. News annually ranks schools in business, education, engineering, law and medicine.

Pitt’s education school stayed at last year’s rank, while the business, engineering and law schools dropped in this year’s rankings.

Rankings for the School of Medicine, which are split into two categories, in one case stayed the same and in another dropped from last year, according to the magazine.

Each year, U.S. News measures graduate programs in these five major disciplines, using quality indicators such as peer assessments, entering students’ test scores, faculty/student ratios and reputational ratings drawn from inside and outside academia.

Nationally, Pitt tied for 85th in business (tied for 79th last year); tied for 23rd in education (same as last year); tied for 52nd (tied for 48th last year) in engineering, and tied for 71st in law (down from tied for 67th last year).

Pitt’s School of Medicine ranked 14th (the same ranking as last year) in the research category. In the primary care preparation category, the University tied for 28th (tied for 12th last year).

Information on the five disciplines will be published in the magazine’s April 5 print edition. In addition, U.S. News offers an expanded online edition with more extensive listings. The online version, which was activated March 15, was the source for this story.

U.S. News also ranks individual areas of study on a three-year rotation. This year, the magazine produced new rankings of graduate programs in selected health areas.

The magazine’s web site (www.usnews.com) also includes rankings of subdisciplines completed in previous years; however, only this year’s new rankings that include Pitt programs are summarized here.

U.S. News methodology

According to U.S. News, rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence, and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. “These data come from surveys of administrators at more than 1,200 programs and some 13,000 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2010 and early 2011,” U.S. News stated.

To gather the peer opinion data, the magazine asked deans, program directors and senior faculty to judge the academic quality of programs in their field on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding).

In the five disciplines, the magazine also surveyed professionals in the field who hire new graduates. To compute the assessment scores of these professionals, the two most recent years’ surveys were averaged.

The statistical indicators used in the rankings of business, education, engineering, law and medical schools fall into two categories: inputs, or measures of the qualities that students and faculty bring to the educational experience; and outputs, measures of graduates’ achievements linked to their degrees, the magazine stated.

Depending on the field, output measures vary. For example, indicators in the business discipline include the ability of graduates to find jobs upon graduation and starting salaries. For law, indicators include employment rates and state bar exam passage rates among first-time test takers.

The weights applied to the indicators reflect the magazine’s judgment about their relative importance, as determined in consultation with experts in each field. Every school’s performance is presented relative to comparable schools.

Within the five disciplines, the magazine ranks numerically the top 75 percent of schools, with the bottom 25 percent listed as unranked. In previous years in the law discipline, U.S. News ranked only the top 100 law schools numerically; that list has been expanded to the top 75 percent.

Business

The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business overall was tied for 85th with CUNY-Bernard M. Baruch College, Miami and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Last year the school was tied for 79th.

All 437 master’s programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business were surveyed in fall 2010 and early 2011. Of these, 142 provided the necessary data, according to the magazine, which ranked the top 112.

Quality indicators for business schools included: overall academic quality assessment as determined by deans and directors of accredited MBA programs, as well as by corporate recruiters and company contacts who hired MBA graduates from previously ranked programs; job placement success (mean starting salary and employment rates for 2010 graduates), and student selectivity (GMAT scores, mean undergraduate GPAs and proportion of applicants accepted in fall 2010).

U.S. News also ranks certain business specialty areas.

One business specialty at Katz was ranked nationally by U.S. News. The school’s part-time MBA program tied for 32nd (tied for 24th last year) with Boston University, California-Davis and Iowa. The online edition lists 191 such programs.

For the second year, U.S. News used a modified methodology from previous years to determine part-time MBA program rankings. The rankings are based solely on a 5.0-scale 2010 peer assessment survey that asked business school deans and MBA program directors at each of the nation’s 295 part-time MBA programs to rate the other part-time programs. Forty-one percent of those surveyed responded.

Prior to last year, the part-time MBA ranking methodology was based solely on the number of times a part-time program was nominated to be among the top 10 such programs.

Education

Pitt’s School of Education tied for 23rd (same as last year) with Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and Maryland out of 190 education schools ranked.

Of the 279 education schools granting doctoral degrees surveyed in fall 2010 and early 2011, 251 provided the data needed to calculate rankings, according to U.S. News.

Quality indicators for education schools included peer quality assessment by school deans and deans of graduate studies, as well as a 2010 nationwide survey of school superintendents in a sampling of districts; student selectivity (mean GRE scores of doctoral students entering in fall 2010 and acceptance rates of doctoral applicants for 2010-11); faculty resources (student-teacher ratio; percentage of full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty winning awards or holding journal editorships in 2009 and 2010, and the ratio of doctoral degrees awarded in the school year 2009-10 to the number of full-time faculty members); total school research expenditures (separately funded research, public and private, conducted by the school) averaged over fiscal years 2009 and 2010, and average research expenditures per full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty member  over fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

U.S. News also ranked schools in 10 education specialty areas based solely on nominations by education school deans and deans of graduate studies. They were asked to choose up to 10 top programs in each specialty area.

Pitt’s education school’s educational psychology specialty was tied for 18th (21st last year) among 20 programs ranked by the magazine. Pitt tied with North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Engineering

The Swanson School of Engineering was tied for 52nd (tied for 48th last year) with Dayton, Massachusetts-Amherst, Michigan State, Notre Dame and SUNY-Buffalo.

Programs at 198 engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees were surveyed; 194 provided the data needed to calculate rankings. U.S. News ranked the top 151 programs in its online edition. Engineering school deans and deans of graduate studies at engineering schools (60 percent response rate), as well as corporate recruiters and company contacts (21.4 percent response rate) who hire engineers with graduate degrees from previously ranked engineering schools, were asked to rate programs. Data were collected in fall 2010 and early 2011.

Quality indicators for engineering schools included the same indicators used for education schools — quality assessment, student selectivity, faculty resources and research activity — based on two surveys conducted in fall 2009.

Research activity was based on total externally funded engineering research expenditures, and research dollars per full-time faculty member, averaged over FY09 and FY10.

Editor’s note: Following publication of the March 17 University Times, U.S. News & World Report announced that, due to several database errors, it had withdrawn 11 of the 12 new specialty rankings of engineering programs, and reverted to the previous year’s rankings, which now are posted on its web site (usnews.com).

The overall rankings of best engineering schools were not affected, the magazine stated.

According to U.S. News, “As of March 18, 2011, these rankings have been carried over from those published in the 2011 edition, which were ranked in 2010. However, the discrepancies in the rankings themselves were not able to be corrected in the 2012 print edition of Best Graduate Schools.”

Law

For overall quality, Pitt’s School of Law tied for 71st (tied for 67th last year) with Kentucky, Loyola, Nevada-Las Vegas, Northeastern  and Oklahoma out of a total of 190 accredited law schools nationwide. The online edition ranked 145 schools including ties.

Schools of law were assessed for quality based on a weighted average of 12 measures from survey data collected in fall 2010 and early 2011. Law school deans and three faculty members at each school were asked to rate programs. According to the magazine, 66 percent of those surveyed responded.

Lawyers and judges also rated schools; 14 percent of those surveyed responded. For this group, the magazine averaged the responses of the two most recent years of surveys.

Other indicators were student selectivity (median LSAT scores, median undergraduate GPA and proportion of accepted JD program applicants who entered in 2010); faculty resources (average 2009 and 2010 expenditures per student for instruction, library and supporting services); financial aid; 2010 student-teacher ratio; the total number of volumes and titles in the library, and job placement success (bar exam passing rate as well as employment rates for 2009 graduates at graduation and at nine months after graduation).

This year, U.S. News modified the way it determines job placement success for 2009 law school graduates.

According to the magazine, “We compute the new JD employment rates used in the law school rankings in an initial effort to publish employment data that [are] somewhat more reflective of the job market for new JD graduates.

“In the past, new JDs counted as employed at graduation and at nine months out if they were working full or part time in a legal or non-legal job or pursuing additional graduate school education after their JD; so did 25 percent of those whose status was ‘unknown.’

“Now, both the at-graduation and nine months after employment rates are figured solely based on the number of grads working at that point in time in a legal or non-legal job divided by the total number of JD graduates. Also, those who are not seeking employment are now counted in the calculation as part of the total number of JD graduates; previously, they were excluded from the size of the graduating class and the calculation.”

The bar exam passage rate indicator is the ratio of the school’s rate to the overall state rate, computed for first-time test takers in summer and winter 2009.

Eleven law specialty areas also were ranked by U.S. News. The rankings were based on votes by law faculty who are listed in the AALS Directory of Law Teachers 2009-10 as teaching in the specialty field, or by directors of clinical and legal writing programs. They named up to 15 of the best programs in each field.

In the health care law specialty, Pitt tied for 12th with Harvard (tied for 15th last year) among the 20 such programs listed.

In the “law firms rank schools” category, new this year, Pitt tied for 81st with 15 other schools. The magazine ranked 131 schools in this category.

According to the magazine, “For the first time, U.S. News presents a ranking of law schools based on the opinions of the people doing the hiring at the nation’s most highly regarded law firms. To produce this list, we asked 750 recruiters and hiring partners at those highly rated firms for their input. … The response rate was 14 percent.”

Medicine

U.S. News issues two separate medical school rankings, one emphasizing research activity and the other a school’s preparation of primary care physicians.

Pitt’s School of Medicine ranked 14th (same as last year) in the research category among 92 medical schools ranked in the online edition.

In the primary care preparation category, the University tied for 28th (tied for 12th last year) among the 97 schools ranked nationally. Pitt tied with Baylor College of Medicine, Brown, Mayo Medical School and New Mexico.

Without mentioning Pitt by name, U.S. News noted that, “Government health officials worry about the growing shortage of primary care physicians nationwide, which has developed, at least in part, because primary care salaries pale in comparison to specialties. … To bridge this gap, a growing number of state loan forgiveness programs for primary care physicians have sprung up, and schools are sharpening their focus on primary care programs. In contrast to the research rankings, many primary care schools made significant jumps in the rankings this year.”

The magazine surveyed the 126 accredited medical schools plus 20 accredited schools of osteopathic medicine for both the research rankings and the primary care rankings.

For the research category, 123 schools provided the data needed to calculate the rankings; 123 schools also provided the data needed to calculate the primary care rankings.

Quality assessment indicators for both categories were based on peer assessment surveys conducted in fall 2010 and early 2011 of deans of medical and osteopathic schools, deans of academic affairs, heads of internal medicine and directors of admissions. The response rate was 46 percent.

Also surveyed in fall 2010 were residency program directors. One survey dealt with research and was sent to a sample of residency program directors in fields outside primary care, including surgery, psychiatry and radiology. The response rate was 17 percent.

A second survey involved primary care and was sent to residency directors in the fields of family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine. The response rate for that survey was 19 percent.

The source for the names for both of the residency directors’ surveys was the Graduate Medical Education Directory 2009-2010 edition, published by the American Medical Association.

In both categories those quality indicators included student selectivity (mean composite Medical College Admission Test score, mean undergraduate grade point average and the proportion of total applicants accepted for the class entering in 2010), and faculty resources (ratio of full-time faculty to students in 2010).

In the research category only, research activity was included in the rankings. It was defined as total dollar amount of National Institutes of Health research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, and the average amount of those grants calculated per full-time medical school and clinical faculty member, both averaged for fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

In the primary care category, the magazine measured the percentage of graduates who entered primary care specialties, such as family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine, averaged over the past three graduating classes.

Among eight medical school specialties ranked by U.S. News, five of Pitt’s programs were ranked nationally.

Pitt’s drug and alcohol abuse specialty ranked 11th among 13 such programs ranked nationally. Pitt ranked 8th last year.

The geriatrics specialty at the University ranked 10th (same as last year) among 21 programs listed.

Internal medicine was ranked 15th (14th last year) among 25 schools listed.

The pediatrics specialty program was ranked 11th (13th last year), among 21 programs listed nationally.

Pitt’s women’s health program ranked 3rd (4th last year) among 19 such programs listed.

Medical specialty rankings were based on ratings by medical deans and senior faculty at peer schools, who were asked to identify up to 10 schools offering the best programs in each of eight specialty areas.

Selected Health Schools and Programs

Health disciplines where Pitt was ranked in the 2012 edition of U.S. News Best Graduate Schools include: the nursing program and several nursing specialty areas; public health, and the health care management specialty.

According to the magazine, all the health rankings were based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline.

In fall 2010, surveys were conducted for the magazine’s current rankings of schools of public health accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (response rate: 61 percent); health care management programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (76 percent); master’s programs in nursing accredited by either the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education or the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (33 percent); graduate nurse anesthesia programs accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (49 percent), and rehabilitation counselor education programs accredited by the Commission on Standards and Accreditation: Council on Rehabilitation Education (40 percent).

The nursing specialty programs are ranked based solely on input from educators at peer nursing institutions, who nominated up to 10 schools for excellence in each area.

Pitt’s nursing graduate program tied for 7th with Duke, Oregon Health and Science University and Yale among 449 such programs ranked nationally.

Pitt also was ranked in several nursing specialty areas, including tied for 3rd with Rush University (among 101 programs ranked overall) in nursing-anesthesia; 6th in clinical nurse specialist: psychiatric/mental health (10 programs listed); 6th in nurse practitioner: adult (16 programs listed); tied for 14th in nurse practitioner: family with Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing (25 programs listed); 4th in nurse practitioner: pediatric (18 programs listed), and 9th in nursing service administration (11 programs listed).

Pitt’s graduate program in public health tied for 11th with Boston University among 39 such programs ranked.

Pitt tied for 25th overall in health care management with Arizona State, Baylor and Tulane. There were 63 such programs ranked nationally.

The rehabilitation counseling specialty area at Pitt tied for 23rd among 96 such programs. Pitt tied with North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Northern Colorado, Portland State, Syracuse, SUNY-Buffalo and Texas-Austin.

—Peter Hart