Emory’s medical, law, business, public health and nursing schools are among the Top 30 schools in America, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2004 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” guide. The rankings are reported in the newsstand book and April 7 issue of U.S. News.

The School of Medicine is ranked 19th among research-oriented medical schools and 35th among primary care-oriented medical schools; Goizueta Business School ranked 21st; the School of Law ranked 27th; the Rollins School of Public Health ranked ninth (up from No. 11 in the 2001 edition, the last time it was ranked); and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing ranked 26th (up from 32nd, also in the 2001 edition).

Last year Emory was 20th in research-oriented medical schools and 25th in primary care-oriented schools, Goizueta was ranked 22nd, and the law school was ranked 22nd.

In other rankings new this year, Emory’s physician-assistant program in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine ranked third (up from fourth in the 2001 edition); the graduate program in nursing-midwifery ranked seventh; Emory’s joint biomedical engineering program with Georgia Tech ranked sixth; and the graduate program in clinical psychology ranked 25th.

Although gratified to be included among the top medical schools in the country, medical Dean Tom Lawley said, “What matters most is the superb quality of the doctors we educate here, and that is an intangible factor that cannot be captured in a numerical ranking.”

Noting the number of top-ranked health specialties, Lawley said Emory’s “research programs and allied health professional programs enhance the strength of medical education at Emory and contribute to well-rounded Emory doctors.”

Public health Dean Jim Curran said Top 10 recognition for the school “will help reinforce Emory’s strategic positioning in Atlanta, along with the CDC, the American Cancer Society, the Carter Center and other agencies working in the forefront of public health worldwide.”

Nursing Dean Marla Salmon said the school’s rankings place Emory in the top 10 percent of all nursing schools with graduate programs and eighth among private schools of nursing. “These are strong indications of both our excellence and upward trajectory and reflect the tremendous strength of our faculty, students and staff,” Salmon said.

Law Dean Tom Arthur said he expects increased recognition in the next few years as the result of the University’s “generous new support” for the law school. “We have already added six new faculty members for next year,” he said, including two new Woodruff Professors, Emory’s most prestigious professorship.

Tom Robertson, dean of the business school, also expects gains in the future, based on the number and caliber of the school’s new faculty and the ever-rising academic profile of its students. The school has been in the Top 25 since 1994.

Many of the categories of schools and programs were not resurveyed this year, so previous years’ rankings remain current. That means the physical therapy program in rehabilitation medicine remains third among all such programs.