In the world of rankings and lists, 11 is the loneliest number.

Luckily, the University's 11th-ranked Medical School has company on campus. The Business School's graduate program also found itself one slot away from U.S. News and World Report's list of the top 10 graduate business programs in the country.

The newsmagazine published its 2007 graduate school rankings last Monday.

Last year the Medical School ranked ninth, while the Business School placed 10th.

The School of Engineering and the Law School did not move from their positions last year, remaining sixth and eighth respectively.

Despite the slip, neither Medical School Dean Allen Lichter nor Business School Dean Robert Dolan said their programs' slight dips reflected a change in their quality.

"We're the same medical school we were last year," Lichter said.

While Dolan acknowledged that rankings are "a part of life" for top programs, he was not concerned about small ranking shifts from year to year.

"We hope to continue to do well enough in the ones that matter so that prospective students will do their homework (researching the school)," Dolan said.

Many prospective students, particularly international students who often cannot personally visit the campus, rely on rankings and reputation in selecting their schools.

Amit Ahuja, a doctoral candidate in political science from India, said reputation and rankings hold great influence for prospective international students.

The magazine's rankings often draw criticism from schools that say their programs are not accurately represented because of the methodology used to compile the lists. The magazine uses a combination of peer reviews and statistical indicators, like acceptance rate and total research funding, to decide each school's rankings.

Critics argue that these methods favor programs with an established reputation and high selectivity.

Lichter said that as a public institution, the University was hurt by this year's addition of the category "grant dollars per faculty," because public schools typically have more faculty than their private counterparts.

However, Lichter added that the University has advantages private programs do not, noting the close relationship between the medical school and the rest of the campus.

"I think in the end that all of that balances out," Lichter said. "We are on a level playing field with some of the world's finest institutions."

While Dolan was disappointed with this year's ranking, he said he is more concerned with recruiters' opinions of graduates. He said he would give more weight to ranking systems that emphasize output data like the success of graduates.

He said the Business School fares much better in publications that use these indicators, like the Wall Street Journal and Business Week.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal ranked the Business School's graduate program second; Business Week ranked the school sixth.

Lichter also said he prefers to focus on peer reviews to judge his school's success.

"We have a wonderful reputation for graduating outstanding practitioners," he said. "We feel that is very reflective of how the product is valued in American medicine."

On the peer review portion of the rankings, the University's Medical School is sixth.

Smaller graduate programs are not evaluated each year.

When last ranked in 2005, the University's programs in political science, psychology and sociology each placed third.

The magazine releases its annual undergraduate rankings in August.

SLIPPING FROM THE TOP

The U.S. News and World Report graduate rankings rate schools on factors like selectivity and student/faculty ratio

Business: ranked 11th (previously 10th)

Medicine: ranked 11th (previously 9th)

No Change in Ranking: Education, Engineering, Law