Latest U.S. News Rankings Place Four UVA Graduate Schools in Nation’s Top 20

U.S. News and World Report magazine’s 2019 rankings of graduate programs list seven University of Virginia schools in the nation’s top 40, including four in the top 20.

The School of Law led the way, ranked ninth in the country among law schools, followed by its North Grounds neighbor, the Darden School of Business, ranked No. 13 among graduate business schools. The Curry School of Education was ranked 16^th and the School of Nursing 20^th. In addition, several specialty areas in these schools were also highly ranked.

U.S. News’ rankings of medical schools were broken into two parts; UVA’s School of Medicine ranked No. 21 in primary care and No. 26 in research. The School of Engineering and Applied Science ranked No. 40 among engineering schools.

The magazine also ranked public affairs programs, with UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy tying for No. 34 overall.

There was no separate overall ranking for the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, but the magazine did update its rankings of several science programs that fall under the school’s purview, including computer science (No. 30), physics (No. 44), biology (No. 46), chemistry (No. 48) and statistics (No. 69). (The magazine did not publish fresh rankings of social sciences and humanities disciplines this year.)

“UVA’s philosophy is to pursue what we value and trust that high rankings will follow,” said Tom Katsouleas, UVA’s executive vice president and provost. “It’s gratifying to see that become true in so many cases – in particular Curry’s meteoric rise over the past few years, driven by its emphasis on research.” 

The Curry School of Education has seen a steady rise up the education school rankings, from 21^st in the 2017 rankings to a spot tied for 18^th in the last year’s listing to this year’s No. 16 placement.

In addition, the school ranked in the top 12 nationally in seven sub-areas: special education (fourth), administration and supervision (seventh), elementary education (seventh), secondary education (seventh), education policy (10^th), curriculum and instruction (12^th) and educational psychology (12^th).

Dean Robert Pianta credited the Curry School’s success to “our faculty and staff’s commitment to innovation and impact.”

“These rankings are evidence of the high standards they hold for their work,” he continued, “and the resulting success in delivering creative academic offerings, investing in meaningful partnerships in the field and continuing to secure highly competitive sponsored research.”

The School of Medicine also improved both of its rankings, moving from 24^th into a tie for 21st in primary care and from 27^th to a tie for 26^th in research. The rankings reflect the growing strength of the school’s research funding as well as the continued impact of its innovative curriculum, school officials said.

The School of Medicine has grown its research portfolio from $162 million in fiscal year 2014 to $222 million in fiscal year 2017, while students continued to be attracted to UVA by its “Next Generation” Cells to Society curriculum, which enhances students’ ability to provide excellent clinical care. Graduate students, medical students and fellows have opportunities for research in a wide variety of biomedical fields, from laboratory sciences to translational studies that impact new treatments for patients.

“These rankings reflect our commitment to all three of our missions as an academic health system: training the next generation of health care workers, breakthrough research discoveries and providing high-quality patient care,” said Dr. David S. Wilkes, the school’s dean.

UVA’s other top-25 national specialty programs included the clinical nurse leader (No. 3), nurse practitioner (No. 11) and Doctor of Nursing Practice (No. 16) programs in the School of Nursing; tax law (No. 5), international law (No. 11) and environmental law (No. 25) in the School of Law; and management (No. 6), entrepreneurship (No. 15) and executive MBA (No. 18) in the Darden School of Business.