U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings of graduate schools yesterday, naming the Law School number eight in the nation.
All the University's graduate schools were ranked in the top tier.
The Nursing School was the only school whose rankings improved, moving from 24 in 1998 to 21 this year.
The Darden School's number 11 rank was the same last year.
The Law and graduate Engineering Schools each dropped one slot, from seven to eight, and from 35 to 36, respectively. The Medical School dropped two spots, from 28 to 30. The Education School dropped six places, from 13 last year to 19.
The Architecture School's graduate program and the Creative Writing Masters program will retain their 1997 rankings of six and four because the magazine did not reevaluate fine arts programs.
University President John T. Casteen III said he generally is pleased with this year's rankings, but they have suffered since Virginia decreased tax support in 1991.
"Despite progress with the state in the last couple of years and more dramatic progress in the Capital Campaign, we still lag in basic resources," Casteen said.
Munsey Wheby, Medical School senior associate dean, also said he partly attributes his school's ranking to a lack of resources. "We think that the ranking would improve if we were able to expand research efforts," Wheby said.
He said the Medical School needs funding for more laboratory space. Medical School Dean Robert M. Carey unsuccessfully petitioned the General Assembly for more funding this year.
Even so, the Medical School's ranking for primary care improved this year, moving from number 35 last year to 28.
Law School spokeswoman Denise Forster said the rankings will have little effect on the number of applications the school receives.
Quentin Johnson, assistant dean for student affairs at the number 21-ranked Nursing School, said the rankings among nursing schools depend too much on reputations.
U.S. News & World Report asks nursing schools to rate their peer institutions and uses these survey results to determine rankings.
Education School Dean David W. Breneman said he is not sure why his school slipped six places.
"I'm just sort of amused by it," Breneman said. "Sometimes we move up, sometimes we move down."
The Education School was ranked 19 in 1998, then rose to 13 in 1999, and now is back down to 19.
He said U.S. News & World Report sends him a survey to rate 200 other education schools and he does not know anything about many of them. He added that the evaluations of education schools' sub-areas are more valid because faculty members are more aware of other schools' strengths in these areas. The Education School is ranked among the top 10 in three of the 10 sub-areas, including number four in special education.
Breneman said he finds the U.S. News & World Report's rankings "a little bit disturbing" because some schools redirect their energies to what the magazine measures.
Phil Giaramita, Darden vice president of communications said he is not surprised that Darden was ranked number 11. He said U.S. News & World Report assesses statistics about the entering class rather than the school's programs, which hurts Darden in the ratings.
Casteen said the University does not have evidence to suggest the rankings have major effects on the number of applications it receives, but that his "gut feeling is that they have to exercise some influence."
Casteen also noted the Law, Business, Engineering, Medical and Nursing Schools are tied with other programs. "Ties in one year commonly predict repositioning in the following year. So next year may be the more interesting story," he said.
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