| Emory Report | Volume 52, No. 28 |
U.S. News rankings part II BY MICHAEL TERRAZAS Last week's article on U.S. News & World Report's annual graduate school rankings was encouraging--and premature. Because of a technical difficulty somewhere between the magazine and Emory's campus, Emory Report received only a partial list of the rankings. It turned out that no news was good news, as several additional University departments--not to mention the public health and nursing schools--were rated favorably. The Rollins School, celebrating its 10th year as a school and its 25th as a program at Emory, ranked 11th among the nation's 28 public health institutions. "We are pleased to be ranked among the top schools of public health, despite our relative youth," said Dean James Curran. "Since the last rankings, we have received an additional seven years of accreditation and have nearly doubled our research base and number of applicants to the program. We feel that we are rightfully placed among the top schools in the country. A large part of our success is due to the strength and reputation of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and Emory University." Also in Health Sciences, the School of Nursing ranked 32nd, and the physical therapy and physician assistant divisions were rated third and fourth, respectively. "We are honored, because the ranking reflects the respect in which the Emory program is held by its peers, said Virginia Joslin, director of the physician assistant division in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. "We at Emory can model an effective physician/assistant team approach to enhance the medical education for medical students, residents and PA students, to develop unique educational opportunities that expand Emory's relationships with graduates, and to foster leadership through mentoring, modeling and formal training for our students." "We are pleased to have improved our ranking from seventh to third in the nation," said Pamela Catlin, director of the physical therapy division. "The faculty is committed to training competent professionals with the desire and initiative for continued development and professional service. The quality of our students is key to our success. Also, the faculty works hard to balance teaching and research responsibilities so that a profile of scholarly productivity is presented nationally." Several of the college's doctoral programs were ranked by U.S. News, including history (25th), English (29th, with a rating of 16th in the subspecialty of African American literature), political science (29th), psychology (42nd), sociology (43rd) and economics (57th). "I'm not one to take such rankings with a great deal of seriousness, but I'm also not one to turn down a compliment," said history chair Walter Adamson, who said the department is usually ranked around 25th. "If they did a close analysis of the faculty as a whole, and not just our 'stars,' I'd be more cheered. The strength of our faculty lies in the 'broad middle,' so to speak." Return to April 10, 2000 contents page
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