Every year as spring arrives, U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News) releases its list of the Best US Graduate Schools. If you are considering applying for graduate school in the autumn, you ought to consult this list for some top options.
Destination: US
The US is the most popular destination for international students. In the 2015-16 academic year, the number of international students studying in the US was over one million, and that number grows each year.
It is also a sensible place to stay after graduation since only 3% of Americans have earned a Master's degree. Your degree will help you stand out from the rest when job searching. But even if you decide not to stay in the US, a Master's degree from a US school is globally accepted and respected.
There are many other good reasons to study in the US, among them being educational opportunities that are geographically and culturally diverse, a global reputation for excellence in higher education, and the widespread use of cutting-edge technology.
If you are a US resident considering graduate school, or if you are planning to enrol in a Master's degree programme in the US next year to join the 400,000 international graduate students in US universities, there is new data from U.S. News available to you. The Best US Graduate Schools for 2018 have been named, and this list may affect the giant decision-making process ahead of you.
Best US graduate schools
U.S. News annually ranks the best graduate schools in the US in the following categories: business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing. These are elite schools with great reputations, earning top rankings among the nearly 2,000 programmes evaluated. Occasionally, U.S. News publishes a ranking of top schools in science, social science and humanities, health, or any number of other disciplines.
Here are the five top graduate schools per field of study that the latest U.S. News ranking lists. Follow the links to review the complete rankings.
Business
#1 (tie) Harvard University (MA, US)
(tie) University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School (PA, US)
#3 University of Chicago – Booth School of Business (IL, US)
#4 (tie) Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management (MA, US)
(tie) Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management (IL, US)
(tie) Stanford University (CA, US)
Education
#1 Harvard University (MA, US)
#2 Stanford University (CA, US)
#3 (tie) University of California – Los Angeles (CA, US)
(tie) University of Pennsylvania (PA, US)
(tie) University of Wisconsin – Madison (WI, US)
Engineering
#1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA, US)
#2 Stanford University (CA, US)
#3 University of California – Berkeley (CA, US)
#4 California Institute of Technology (CA, US)
#5 (tie) Carnegie Mellon University (PA, US)
(tie) University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (MI, US)
Law
#1 Yale University (CT, US)
#2 Stanford University (CA, US)
#3 Harvard University (MA, US)
#4 University of Chicago (IL, US)
#5 Columbia University (NY, US)
Medicine: research
#1 Harvard University (MA, US)
#2 Stanford University (CA, US)
#3 Johns Hopkins University (MD, US)
#4 University of California – San Francisco (CA, US)
#5 University of Pennsylvania – Perelman School of Medicine (PA, US)
Medicine: primary care
#1 University of Washington (WA, US)
#2 University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (NC, US)
#3 University of California – San Francisco (CA, US)
#4 Oregon Health and Science University (OR, US)
#5 University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (MI, US)
Nursing
#1 Duke University (NC, US)
#2 Johns Hopkins University (MD, US)
#3 University of Pennsylvania (PA, US)
#4 Emory University (GA, US)
#5 Ohio State University (OH, US)
The U.S. News Ranking Methodology
To create its list of top graduate schools, U.S. News performed a statistical analysis of 1,970 programmes in six disciplines based on several key indicators, such as faculty-student ratio and starting salaries for graduates. It also administered 16,500 surveys to academics and professionals to collect opinions regarding programme excellence.
U.S. News encourages students to use its ranking list not solely, but in addition to many other available resources, to make critical decisions regarding graduate school.
