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UCSD GRADUATE PROGRAMS AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS RANKED AMONG NATION'S BEST IN U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT SURVEY

In the latest survey of graduate programs released today by U.S. News & World Report, the ranking of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering and the UCSD School of Medicine continued to rise. Many of the university's programs in the sciences were also ranked among the nation's best.  (The Arts, Humanities and Social sciences were not newly ranked in this survey).

The rankings appear in the magazine's 2002 Best Graduate Schools guidebook and in the April 15 issue of U.S. News & World Report, both of which will be available on newsstands April 8. The survey results also appear on-line at www.usnews.com.

The Jacobs School of Engineering was ranked 14th in the nation (up from 16th in 2001) and 8th among public universities.  In addition, all of the School's departments had graduate programs ranked among the top 20 in the nation.  Bioengineering was ranked 3rd and Electrical and Computer Engineering was ranked 14th.  In the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, rankings included computer engineering (15), computer systems (16) and computer science (20).  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering rankings included aerospace engineering (17), mechanical engineering (17), and the Materials Science program ranked 21st.  The Department of Structural Engineering ranked 19th in the category of civil engineering.

"This marks the third consecutive year that the Jacobs School has been ranked among the top 10 public engineering schools, and it is clear that we have taken our place among the nation's premier engineering programs," said Robert Conn, Dean of the Jacobs School.  "The ranking is another confirmation of the extraordinary quality of our faculty, students, and programs.  It is also a reflection on the important national role that San Diego now plays in the education of tomorrow's technology leaders and in the development of basic innovative technologies that are most critical to our regional and national prosperity."

Since the U.S. News survey of graduate programs was first published in 1994, the Jacobs School has risen at a faster trajectory than any other engineering school in the history of these rankings, moving from 38 in 1994 to 14 today.

The UCSD School of Medicine is ranked 20th in the nation among top medical schools with a research focus, moving up from 24th in last year's ranking. UCSD's AIDS program ranks 10th, and the Drug and Alcohol Abuse program is 7th, both higher in the rankings than in previous years. The neurosciences graduate program, a joint program of the School of Medicine and general campus, climbed to 7th in the nation, from 10th place in the last ranking.

"It is gratifying to be recognized as a school equally committed to training the physicians and scientists who will be our future health care leaders, and to conducting research that improves diagnosis and treatment of disease," said Edward W. Holmes, M.D., vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine. "The strength of our programs is further demonstrated by recent statistics that rank the medical faculty as 2nd in the nation in research funding per faculty member."

Among graduate programs in the sciences, UCSD ranked 14th in biological sciences.  Other highly-ranked programs include physics (16), mathematics (21), chemistry (22), and applied mathematics (31).

U.S. News & World Report also included rankings for graduate programs in the Social Sciences, Arts, and Geology, which are based on surveys from past years.  Within the Division of Social Sciences, one of the largest academic divisions at UCSD, the graduate program in political science was ranked 7th in the nation. Specialty programs in the department were also 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).  UCSD's Department of Theatre and Dance was ranked 3rd in the nation and the Department of Visual Art's film program was ranked 12th.  In the area of Geology, UCSD was ranked 11th in the nation and 6th in the specialty of geophysics. 

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 graduate schools and most sciences were based on new surveys conducted in 2001; the Social Sciences rankings derived from a 2000 survey, the Geology survey was conducted in 1999, and the Arts survey was from 1997.