University graduate programs in law, business, history and English performed particularly well in the annual U.S. News and World Report graduate school rankings released Friday.
While the rankings placed the University Law School eighth overall in the nation and Darden School of Business 14th, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences was ranked 34th, prompting some members of the administration to call for further improvement.
"We're not where we want to be," University Provost Gene Block said. "We have a plan to move the sciences and engineering programs into a more prominent position, and that should eventually lead to higher rankings. We have plans in all of the areas to develop new strengths, and we are hoping the rankings will improve."
In some areas the University did extraordinarily well. Four of the University's English programs were ranked in the top ten nationally, and the history department's U.S. Colonial History program was ranked seventh.
"In some ways that has been our strength for many years," University spokesperson Carol Wood said. "In English, history and economics we come on particularly strong, and these rankings reflect that."
The rankings incorporate the results of a survey on schools' reputations-- 25 percent of the ranking -- and data about schools' entering classes and financial resources.
"When we started the rankings, there was no place to turn for reliable information," U.S. News spokesperson Richard Folkers said. "Our opinion is that a ranking is a valuable tool to have in your toolbox when picking a school, but it is just one of the things that ought to be a resource."
The rankings formula is unable to evaluate the quality of students a University graduates or the quality of education students receive once enrolled in a program, although Folkers said U.S. News uses quantitative indicators to make the best possible prediction.
"It is certainly widely viewed that the gold standard of educational rankings would be to look at outputs, evaluating the quality of education given to students," Folkers said.
Unfortunately it is impossible to come up with a precise ranking of outputs because of the difficulty in making such a survey statistically fair, Folkers said.
Still, University administrators acknowledge that improvement in educational quality and the resources devoted to a given program ultimately will be reflected in rankings.
"We're mindful of rankings, but we are really driven by a desire for excellence in both research and educational programs," Block said. "It is our deep belief that if we do that, the rankings will follow."
The school is continually taking action to improve quality, according to Block. For example, the Board of Visitors recently launched a program that will hire two new National Academy level faculty members in the sciences for the next five years. Such programs have already reaped some rewards, including the Engineering ranking four-slot increase from 38th last year.
"We're gratified that it moved up," Block said. "Anything that moves in the right direction is encouraging."
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