The University of Nebraska-Lincoln featured several ranked colleges and programs in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools 2017, which were released March 16.
The College of Education and Human Sciences’ graduate program landed at No. 39 among 184 universities in the publication’s list of Best Education Graduate Schools. That’s a one-spot improvement from last year’s rankings.
Marjorie Kostelnik, the college’s dean, said the rankings reflect the college’s success in preparing students to make a difference.
“Our graduate education programs continue to advance relative to other programs nationally in the U.S. News ranking,” Kostelnik said. “We strive to provide our students with outstanding learning opportunities and value, and we see the rankings as positive feedback. This evidence also reflects well on our faculty and staff who are dedicated to providing high-quality service to our students.”
In addition, the college’s speech-language pathology program was No. 20 in the departmental rankings, compiled by feedback from program directors and faculty around the nation; and the college’s audiology program jumped 10 spots to No. 26. Both programs are in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders.
The College of Law held steady in 2017, checking in at No. 57 among 149 schools four years after being ranked No. 89. U.S. News examined peer assessment, assessment by lawyers and judges, students’ grade-point averages, law-school entrance exam scores, acceptance rates, student-to-faculty ratio, recent graduate employment and the rate of graduates from each law school who pass the bar exam.
“The most interesting thing about the ranking is the statistics that make it up,” Interim Law Dean Richard Moberly said. “Nebraska Law ranks in the top 30 schools in the country in the most important outcome measures for students, which are passing the bar exam and getting a job that utilizes the law degree. Importantly, we get those results while charging the lowest tuition of any school in the top 100. Our students graduate with the fourth-lowest debt load in the country, pass the bar and start jobs where they put their legal education to work.”
That combination is why National Jurist Magazine has also rated Nebraska Law the No. 1 Best Value law school in the United States, Moberly said.
The College of Engineering was No. 92 of 145 schools in this year’s graduate school rankings. Its biological/agricultural engineering program was No. 8, based on U.S. News’ survey of engineering school department heads.
The College of Business Administration’s part-time MBA program was No. 59 of 219, a ranking that comes on the heels of The Financial Times’ naming of Nebraska’s online MBA program as No. 12 in the world.
“The recognition by Financial Times for our online MBA is significant as it demonstrates how the world is noticing the first-class business education we offer,” said Donde Plowman, dean of the College of Business Administration. “Our students earning their MBA at Nebraska receive the same high-quality program whether they take classes on campus, online or both.”
The university’s graduate program in ceramics, in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, also was No. 9 in the nation in the publication’s fine arts schools rankings.
In January, U.S. News also ranked Nebraska highly in a number of online education categories. See those rankings here.
