U.S. News & World Report ranks Ohio State well

Ohio State's master's and doctoral programs are the best in Ohio and among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of selected graduate programs, released March 31.

"Ohio State's rankings are great news," says Susan Huntington, dean of the Graduate School."We continue to do extremely well against public universities nationally, and the competition to move up is very intense. We are being compared to hundreds of schools and are placing in the top 5 to 10 percent."

Led by an especially strong showing by the College of Education, nine Ohio State colleges were represented in this year's new data. The College of Law, whose dispute resolution program is named as the second best in the United States, is featured in an accompanying story about that subject as well as in a piece about rising standards for bar examinations. The College of Education also is cited in a feature story on the need for special education teachers.

The magazine does not rank all programs each year and reprints earlier years' ratings in some fields.

In addition to the new rankings shown in the box on this page, previously reported strong rankings for Ohio State's architecture, fine arts, ceramics, chemistry, creative writing, drama, economics, English, history, music, number theory, paleontology, pharmacy, physics, political science, psychology, public policy and sociology graduate programs are included in the book and on the Web site (www.usnews.com).

The U.S. News rankings are based on a formula that weighs several criteria, including how selective a program is in admitting applicants, faculty resources, institutional reputation and research activity. A ranking in the top tier can mean more success for institutions as they recruit graduate students in a highly competitive environment.

The list of rankings appears in the separate publication America's Best Graduate Schools, and an abbreviated list is in the April 10 edition of the magazine. The magazine's annual ranking of overall university reputations, focusing on undergraduate programming, is released in early autumn.

Graduate program rankings by U.S. News & World Report

Overall college rankings are determined by sets of criteria that include student selectivity, reputation, placement of graduates, faculty resources and research activities. Specialty program rankings are determined by reputational surveys among faculty in the field. Full lists can be found at www.usnews.com.

College of Education (Master's and Ph.D.)

Overall college ranking -- 8th among 187 graduate programs nationwide

Specialty programs cited:

Vocational and technical education --1st

Higher education administration -- 1st

Elementary teacher education -- 2nd

Secondary teacher education -- 3rd

Counseling/personnel services -- 4th

Administration/supervision -- 6th

Curriculum/instruction -- 9th

Rehabilitation counseling -- 27th

Fisher College of Business (M.B.A.)

Overall college ranking -- 25th among 325 institutions offering the MBA nationwide

Specialty programs cited:

Production/operations -- 10th

Accounting -- 21st

Finance -- 21st

Qualitative analysis -- 21st

General management -- 26th

Marketing -- 26th

College of Engineering (Master's and Ph.D.)

Overall college ranking -- 22nd among 219 graduate engineering programs nationwide

Specialty programs cited:

Nuclear engineering -- 14th

Industrial/manufacturing engineering -- 14th

Materials science -- 17th

Aeronautical and aerospace engineering -- 17th

Mechanical engineering -- 19th

Civil engineering -- 23rd

Chemical engineering -- 24th

Electrical engineering -- 26th

College of Law (J.D.)

Overall college ranking -- 37th among 174 ABA-accredited law schools

Specialty programs cited:

Dispute resolution -- 2nd

Health law -- 13th

College of Medicine and Public Health (M.D.)

Overall college ranking -- 40th among 125 accredited medical schools nationwide

Specialty program cited:

Primary care -- 42nd among 144 accredited medical and osteopathic schools

Master's program in health services management and policy -- 12th

College of Nursing (Master's programs only)

Overall college ranking -- 21st among 204 accredited institutions

Specialty program cited:

Nurse specialist adult medical/surgical -- 9th

College of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.)

Overall college ranking -- 6th among 21 AVMA-accredited colleges

College of Social Work (M.S.W.)

Overall college ranking -- 33rd among 70 accredited institutions

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Master's)

Specialty programs cited:

Audiology -- 13th among 66 accredited programs

Speech and Hearing Science -- 15th among 119 accredited programs

ACE board of directors elects Kirwan

President Kirwan has been elected to the board of directors of the American Council on Education (ACE).

Kirwan, who was elected at the organization's 82nd annual meeting in Chicago recently, will serve until 2002.

ACE, a comprehensive association of about 1,600 of the nation's colleges and universities, is dedicated to analysis of higher education issues and advocacy on behalf of quality higher education and adult education programs.

Its membership also includes about 200 national and regional higher education associations and organizations.

ACE coordinates the interests of all sectors of higher education into a single voice on national policy issues. It operates programs designed to increase access to post-secondary education, promote equity, ensure quality education on the nation's campuses and train new generations of higher education leaders.

The board of directors is responsible for overseeing the management of ACE and setting the general policy direction for the organization, which represents higher education before Congress, federal agencies, the Supreme Court and the federal courts.

Other higher education leaders elected as new directors to the 38-member board were: George Boggs, president of Palomar College (Calif.); Nancy S. Dye, president of Oberlin College; E. Gordon Gee, former Ohio State president and now chancellor-elect of Vanderbilt University; James A. Hefner, president of Tennessee State University; Gladys Styles Johnston, chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Kearney; Michael S. McPherson, president of Macalester College (Minn.); William E. Troutt, president of Rhodes College (Tenn.); J. William Wenrich, chancellor of Dallas County Community College District; and Peggy R. Williams, president of Ithaca College (N.Y.).

Associations elected to one-year terms were the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the University Continuing Education Association.

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