4/24/2009

Three Rice graduate specialties make US News' top 10 rankings, Jones School moves up to 38th

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Three specialty areas of graduate study at Rice University have again been ranked among the top 10 nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s "America’s Best Graduate Schools." And the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management moved up to 38th.

Rice's bioengineering program continues to climb in the rankings. It is tied for seventh this year with the University of Pennsylvania, up from a ninth-place tie last year with Case Western Reserve University.

Rice's ninth-place rankings in both the computer programming language specialty and the atomic/molecular/optical specialty in physics remain unchanged because U.S. News did not conduct surveys in those fields in 2009.

The Jones School's ranking is a two-point increase over last year's and a 10-point improvement from its placement in 2007. In terms of starting salary and bonus, the Rice MBA full-time 2008 graduates ranked 22nd.

The U.S. News rankings are based solely on nominations by department heads and directors of graduate studies at peer schools. Survey participants cannot vote for their own schools.

The rankings will be published in the 2010 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools" and in the May issue of U.S. News and World Report magazine. The rankings are also available at www.usnews.com.