Many college seniors across the country are anxiously waiting to hear from graduate schools, and based on U.S. News & World Report’s newly released annual rankings of the country’s top graduate schools, the University may be high on many of their lists.
U.S. News & World Report ranked five main professional programs — medicine, law, business, education and engineering — in its 2012 compilation of graduate schools, in addition to classifying subspecialties of more than 1,200 graduate schools.
In a seventh-place tie with the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan Law School ranked the highest of all the University’s professional schools, rising two spots from last year.
The average LSAT score of University Law students is 168-171, and the students’ average undergraduate grade point average is 3.57-3.85, according to the report.
Until this year, the same law schools have held the top 14 spots since U.S. News & World Report began ranking law programs. But this year, the University of Texas at Austin jumped from 15th to 14th, breaking the so-called “T-14.”
However, the University of Michigan Medical School fell in the rankings. The medical school rankings were divided into two categories — research and primary care. The University of Michigan Medical School research ranking dropped from 6th to 10th place while its primary care rating fell from 14th to 20th from last year to this year.
With an 8.5 percent acceptance rate, the University of Michigan Medical School accepts students with an average undergraduate GPA of 3.77 and an average MCAT score of 11.6.
Three different schools took the top spots in each of the two medical school categories. Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University ranked in the top three for research, and the University of Washington, the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and Oregon Health and Science University took the lead in primary care.
The Ross School of Business ranked 14th among full-time MBA programs, tying with the University of California–Los Angeles. Stanford University took the top spot, surpassing Harvard University, which shared first place with Stanford last year.
All but one subspecialty — information systems, which ranked 17th — in the Ross School of Business fell within the top 11 spots.
The University’s Business School students have an average undergraduate GPA of 3.4 and an average GMAT score of 704, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The University of Michigan College of Engineering ranked ninth on the list for engineering programs, with the subspecialty nuclear engineering taking first place.
The University of Michigan also earned a first place spot for the School of Public Health’s Department of Health Management and Policy.
However, the University traditionally chooses not to place much emphasis on national rankings.
“While University officials are pleased that U-M consistently is ranked as one of the nation’s finest universities by U.S. News & World Report, they also note that this type of strict ranking of schools is not the most accurate measure of the quality of an institution,” an August 2010 University press release stated.
In an interview in August, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said rankings do not always represent a school or program.
“(There are) lots of other factors that go into what makes the best place for an individual student to attend,” Fitzgerald said.