University Times

Pitt was included among the nation’s top graduate schools in several disciplines and subspecialties in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of America’s best graduate schools.

Each year, the magazine measures graduate programs in five major disciplines (business, education, engineering, law and medicine), using measures such as entering students’ test scores, faculty/student ratios and reputation ratings drawn from inside and outside academia.

Information on the five disciplines was printed in the magazine’s April 14 edition, which was published last week.

The magazine also produces an expanded supplement that includes more extensive listings, and rankings for subdisciplines and specialty program areas.

In addition, U.S. News offers an expanded on-line edition of its rankings, with even more extensive listings. The on-line version was the source for this story.

The magazine’s web site (www.usnews.com) also includes rankings done in previous years; only new rankings are summarized here. There were no new rankings in sciences, social sciences or humanities this year.

Commenting on the latest U.S. News rankings at Senate Council last week, Provost James V. Maher expressed mixed feelings on their value. “We don’t really know what to make of them,” Maher said. He noted that Pitt holds its own in the rankings, this year with top 50 or near top 50 rankings in the five major disciplines, and nursing in the top 10, up from 12th last year. The law school at No. 51 has risen from No. 93 in four years, he pointed out. (In past years, following the top 50 list, U.S. News has published law school rankings alphabetically in tiers, but schools can obtain their specific rankings from the magazine.)

“I do think that these significant improvements are a measure of the things we’ve been doing to improve the substance of the quality of the schools,” Maher said.

On the other hand, he said, the U.S. News ranking system includes data that are suspect, “that we wouldn’t necessarily agree are appropriately in there, or are appropriately weighted.”

U.S. News methodology

According to U.S. News, rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinion and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. “For the rankings in all five areas, indicator and opinion data come from surveys of more than 1,000 programs and nearly 7,000 academics and other professionals conducted in the fall of 2002,” U.S. News stated.

In the five disciplines, the magazine also surveyed professionals in the field who are part of the hiring process.

“The statistical indicators used in rankings of business, education, engineering, law, and medical schools fall into two broad categories: inputs, or measures of the qualities that students and faculty bring to the educational experience; and outputs, measures of graduates’ achievements that can be credited to their educational experience,” the magazine stated. For example, indicators include bar exam success rates for law school graduates and the mean starting salary of new M.B.A.s.

Rankings of graduate programs in selected health fields are based solely on surveys of some 2,000 faculty and administrators.

Business

The Katz graduate School of Business was ranked No. 50 out of 82 business schools listed in the expanded on-line edition.

According to U.S. News, all 365 accredited master’s programs in business were surveyed. Of these, 284 responded, and 165 provided the data needed to calculate rankings using the magazine’s methodology.

Two business specialties at Katz were ranked nationally. The information systems specialty tied for 19th with Northwestern University of the 26 programs listed.

The part-time M.B.A. program tied for 17th nationally with CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College and Wake Forest University. The on-line edition listed 24 programs.

Business specialty rankings are based on ratings by educators at peer schools, the magazine said. Business school deans and program heads were asked to nominate up to 10 programs for excellence in each of the areas listed.

Education

Pitt’s School of Education was tied for 41st (ranked 38th last year) out of 68 education schools listed in this year’s rankings.

Of the 188 education schools surveyed, 155 replied, providing the data needed to calculate rankings, according to U.S. News.

Engineering

Pitt’s School of Engineering tied for 52nd with Iowa, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt universities. Programs at 185 engineering schools that granted doctoral degrees were surveyed, with 169 responding. Of those, 168 provided the data needed to calculate rankings; U.S. News lists the top 84.

Law

Pitt’s School of Law was tied for 51st (with Baylor University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky) out of the top 100 ranked in tiers 1 and 2.

A total of 177 law schools were ranked nationwide in four tiers.

In previous years, U.S. News has published rankings only of the top 50, with other schools ranked alphabetically in three tiers. Pitt’s law school was ranked in the second tier on last year’s list. Officials learned from the magazine that Pitt’s law school was ranked 58th last year.

Pitt’s health care law specialty was ranked 12th nationally. Law specialty rankings are based on nominations by legal educators at peer institutions. Legal educators nominated up to 15 schools in each specialty field.

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 was ranked 18th (last year it ranked 17th) for research among 70 medical schools listed, and was rated tied for 30th (18th last year) for primary care among the 60 schools listed. Pitt tied with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center-Dallas and with Ohio State College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Brown and Stony Brook universities.

There were 117 medical schools nationwide that provided enough data to be ranked, the magazine said. The magazine lists the top 69 for research and the top 66 for primary care.

Among medical school specialties, Pitt’s geriatrics program tied for 21st with Baylor College of Medicine and Stanford University.

The pediatrics specialty was rated 16th, with 19 schools listed.

Pitt’s women’s health program ranked 7th nationally among 19 programs listed.

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

On a rotating basis, U.S. News also rates graduate programs in selected health disciplines and nursing specialties.

Nursing

Overall, Pitt’s nursing master’s program ranked tied for 10th nationally with the universities of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, California-Los Angeles, Maryland-Baltimore and Yale University. A total of 277 nursing programs nationally were included in the expanded on-line edition.

The nursing-anesthesia master’s program tied for 6th with Duke University, Oakland University-Beaumont (Mich.) and the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston. Seventy programs were listed in all.

Among nursing specialty areas, Pitt’s family nurse practitioner program tied for 21st among the 28 programs listed. Pitt tied with Boston College, Emory and George Mason universities, and the universities of Kentucky, Rochester, Texas-Austin and Virginia.

The adult nurse practitioner program ranked 10th among 15 listed.

Pitt’s pediatric nurse practitioner program was tied for 11th among 22 programs listed. Pitt tied with Case Western Reserve, Emory and Northeastern universities, as well as the universities of California-Los Angeles, Illinois-Chicago and Iowa.

Among clinical nursing specialties, Pitt’s adult/medical-surgical clinical nurse specialist program tied for 12th with the University of California-Los Angeles, and the psychiatric/mental health program tied for 9th out of 15. Pitt tied with Oregon Health Sciences University, Rutgers State University-Newark and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Nursing specialty rankings are based solely on ratings by educators at peer schools, according to the magazine. From the list of nursing schools surveyed, nursing educators nominated up to 10 schools for excellence in each area. Those with the most votes appeared in the on-line edition’s lists.

Other health disciplines

Pitt’s master’s program in health services administration tied for 25th among 37 programs listed. Pitt tied with the University of Colorado-Denver.

Pitt’s graduate program in public health was listed as 11th among 21 schools nationwide.

The health disciplines rankings are based on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline.

—Peter Hart