April 2, 2004

UCSD Medicine, Engineering Schools Among
Top 20 In U.S. News & World Report Rankings

By Denine Hagen

In the annual survey of graduate programs released today by U.S. News, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering were ranked among the nation’s best.

The School of Medicine was ranked 6th in the nation among public universities and 17th among all medical schools, including privates, in the category of research-focused medical schools. With more than $260 million in sponsored research support, the School of Medicine is 2nd in the nation in research funding per faculty member. The medical school also ranked 7th in the nation as a primary care school. Among the medical specialties, UCSD's AIDS program was ranked 9th, the Drug and Alcohol Abuse program was 8th, and Internal Medicine was 21st in the nation.

The Jacobs School of Engineering was ranked 7th among public engineering schools and 13th among all engineering schools. The Jacobs School’s Department of Bioengineering ranked 2nd among the nation’s biomedical and bioengineering programs. With $118 million in research support, the Jacobs School is 3rd in the nation for research expenditures per faculty member. Other Jacobs School graduate programs highly ranked in the survey include: computer engineering (14); electrical/electronic/communications (14); mechanical engineering (18); aerospace engineering (18); and materials (23).

The rankings appear in the 2005 America’s Best Graduate Schools guidebook and in the April 12 edition of the U.S. News weekly magazine, both of which will be available on newsstands April 5. The survey results also appear on-line at www.usnews.com.

The current U.S. News survey includes rankings from past years for graduate programs in the biological, physical, and social sciences and in the arts. In those repeat rankings, UCSD ranked 14th in the biological sciences. Other highly ranked science programs included physics (16), mathematics (21), chemistry (22), and applied mathematics (31). Within the Division of Social Sciences, the graduate program in political science was ranked 7th in the nation. Specialty programs in the department also were rated high, including comparative politics (2), American politics (6), international politics (9) and political theory (16). Other specialty programs ranked among the best in the survey include sociology of culture (4), cognitive psychology (7), Latin American history (8), microeconomics (15), economics (17), and psychology (17). In the area of geology, UCSD was ranked 11th in the nation and 6th in the specialty of geophysics. UCSD's programs in multimedia/visual communications were ranked 6th in the nation, reflecting the university's growing strength in the arts.

The magazine's rankings of graduate schools and programs are based on surveys among deans and faculty members in specific fields who judged each institution's reputation; surveys from professionals in the field outside of academe; and objective criteria, such as research activity, faculty resources and an institution's student selectivity. The magazine's rankings for engineering, medicine, and health disciplines were based on new surveys conducted in 2003; the fine arts rankings were from a 2002 survey, the sciences rankings were derived from a 2001 survey; and the social sciences rankings were based on a 2000 survey.

Media Contacts:
Denine Hagen, (858) 534-2920 or Leslie Franz, (619) 543-6163