U.S. News released its 2026 graduate school rankings Tuesday, and the University’s schools either remained stagnant or saw slight changes in their rankings. The School of Law, Darden School of Business and School of Education and Human Development retained their place in comparison to the 2025 rankings. The University School of Law maintained its ranking from last year as the fourth best Law school nationwide, the Nursing Master and Doctor of Nursing Practice saw small elevations in rankings and the Engineering school fell three places.
U.S. News updates their rankings annually, providing a standard nationwide benchmark for academic performance of both undergraduate and graduate schools across the country. It compiles their rankings based on a methodology that combines peer assessments, statistical surveys and other measures to evaluate each school.
In an email statement to The Cavalier Daily, University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover thanked the work of the University’s faculty, and she largely attributed the high rankings to this group’s work.
“We are pleased to see continued high marks for U.Va.'s law, business, education and nursing graduate programs,” Glover wrote. “These rankings reflect the dedication of our faculty and the excellence, value and outcomes of our programs.”
This year, Law School is tied with the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey School of Law at No. 4. It also retained its spot as the highest ranked public Law School — though the School of Law is financially self-sufficient and does not receive state funding, it is still considered a public school. In the U.S. News breakdown of individual areas within law schools, the School of Law was rated highly in the areas of Criminal Law (No. 5), Tax Law (No. 5) and Constitutional Law (No. 8).
Darden also retained its spot at No. 11, now tied with the Yale School of Management. The University’s Master of Business Administration Program now ranks as the No. 2 Public School MBA Program in the country.
U.S. News also rated the Education School at No. 6, tied with six other institutions including Harvard, New York University, Teachers College at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Texas at Austin. The school was fourth in Public Education Schools, and it rated highly in Special Education — ranking No. 6 — and Elementary Education — ranking No. 8.
The University’s Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences saw a slight drop in the U.S. graduate engineering school rankings from No. 39 to No. 42. U.S. News rated the school as the No. 2 graduate engineering school in the Commonwealth behind Virginia Tech, which was ranked No. 32 in the nation overall.
Both of the University’s Nursing Masters and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs saw increases in their rankings — the programs rose from No. 20 to No. 8 and No. 47 to No. 41, respectively. These programs are both ranked No. 1 in the Commonwealth, and the Nursing Masters program ranks as the No. 9 Public School Nursing Masters program in the nation.
U.S. News also released Masters in Fine Arts and Medical School rankings. The University did not submit a statistical survey, so it remained unranked in these categories according to the U.S. News methodology.
U.S. News releases graduate school rankings each April, and undergraduate institution rankings in the fall.
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