U.S. News and World Report released its 2013 rankings for graduate schools on Tuesday. Cornell was ranked 10th overall in engineering, 14th in law and 16th in both the business and medical fields.Although the majority of Cornell’s rankings did not change since U.S. News’ report last year, the University’s fine arts field jumped from 50th place to 36th. Unlike most of fields included in the assessment, the University’s arts program had not been evaluated since 2008.“We are very pleased that our visual arts program has been recognized for excellence by its peers,” said Barbara Knuth, vice provost and dean of the Graduate school. “Peer institutions may have become more aware of the strength and quality of our program and the accomplishments of the faculty, including some relatively new faculty.”In the field of engineering, Cornell ranked third among biological and agricultural engineering programs and jumped five spots to 15th in biomedical engineering. Additionally, the University’s mechanical, industrial, civil and computer engineering programs were each ranked among the top 10 in their respective categories.Outlining their methodology for assessing rankings, U.S. News lists factors including admissions selectivity, research activity, faculty resources and evaluations from corporate recruiters.Cornell currently holds the 15th spot in the overall national University category, according to U.S. News Report’s 2012 rankings. However, Knuth said that since U.S. News does not assign the University an overall score at the graduate level, methods of assessment may differ from year to year within each field.“Generalizing about why an individual field may have gone up or down is challenging,” Knuth said.
Original Author: Elizabeth Kussman