UC San Diego’s Graduate Programs Among Nation’s Best, According to U.S. News and World Report

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Photo by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

The 2014 edition of the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools guidebook, released today, highly ranks the University of California, San Diego’s professional schools in engineering and medicine, as well as its academic Ph.D. programs in the social sciences and humanities.

“These new rankings illustrate UC San Diego’s rich academic portfolio,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “From our many strengths across diverse disciplines to our award-winning scholars at the forefront of their fields, we educate the next generation of leaders who will address our society’s most pressing global challenges.”          

The U.S. News guidebook annually ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. Beyond the five disciplines ranked annually, the publication also periodically ranks programs in other areas. This year, the publication released new rankings for programs in economics, English, history, political science, sociology and psychology, in which UC San Diego earned top marks.          

UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering ranked 14th out of 199 engineering schools and the biomedical/bioengineering program within the engineering school is ranked 3rd in the nation. The UC San Diego School of Medicine is ranked 15th in research-intensive programs among 126 medical schools; in the primary care category, it placed 39th out of 114 medical schools.          

The data from U.S. News indicates UC San Diego graduate programs in the social sciences and humanities are among the best in the nation. Political science (8th), psychology (14th), and economics (15th), were listed near the top nationally in their overall fields. U.S. News also gave high marks to specialties in behavioral neuroscience (1st), cognitive psychology (3rd), econometrics (4th), and international politics (5th).          

In addition, UC San Diego’s Ph.D. programs in history, sociology and English are ranked 30th, 35th and 39th, respectively, in the nation.          

The annual Best Graduate Schools rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. The data come from surveys of administrators at more than 1,250 programs and over 13,000 academics and professionals, conducted during the fall of 2012 and early 2013.          

This year, new peer surveys were conducted and new rankings published for Ph.D. programs in economics, English, history, political science, psychology, and sociology. For the first time, the new Ph.D. rankings were based on the results of the two latest surveys, in 2008 and 2012.          

Although not newly ranked this year, UC San Diego’s other graduate programs listed in the top 25 include overall field rankings in fine arts, physics, chemistry and mathematics at 13, 14, 20 and 21, respectively.          

Rankings in mathematics and science specialties include: plasma physics (5th), discrete mathematics and combinations (6th), neuroscience/neurobiology (7th), biochemistry (10th), computer science (14th), biological sciences (15th) and earth sciences (17th).          

For more information on the 2014 edition of the U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools guidebook, go to www.usnews.com/gradmeth.