The UC Davis School of Medicine was named one of the top 50 medical schools in the country for research and primary care by U.S. News and World Report magazine.
Also well-rated in the recently announced graduate school rankings were the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, law school and College of Engineering.
The rankings appeared in the April 12 issue of U.S. News and World Report and rate public and private institutions together.
In the area of primary care, the School of Medicine was ranked at 17. Among the criteria used to calculate the rankings were an assessment score by residency directors, the 2003 average undergraduate grade point average, the 2003 average MCAT score, the percentage of graduates from 2001-03 entering primary care, and the 2003 faculty-student ratio.
The top-ranked school in primary care is the University of Washington. In the area of research, the School of Medicine was ranked at 49. Criteria for this list included the 2003 average undergraduate grade point average, the 2003 average MCAT score, an assessment score by residency directors and the amount of 2003 National Institutes of Health research grants.
The UC Davis Graduate School of Management, meanwhile, tied for 29th position in the best business schools category. Also placing in 29th were business schools at Michigan State University, Arizona State University and the University of Notre Dame.
The business school has been ranked among the nation's top 15 publicly supported MBA programs and in the top 50 overall for nine consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report.
The law school was rated 33rd among graduate schools and received high marks for its level of diversity -- earning one of the five highest ratings for diversity, a .53. The top score was .60. According to U.S. News and World Report's ranking system, the closer a school's number is to the highest possible score of 1.0, the more diverse is the student population. However, the ratings noted that schools with a large proportion of one ethnic group, even if it is a minority group, don't score high in this index.
In choosing to now figure a diversity index into its ratings, the magazine noted: "Law schools rich in racial and ethnic diversity are thought to offer their students a chance to encounter ideas and experiences different from their own, which can be good practice for the life of a lawyer."
Several UC campuses rated well in engineering graduate schools. The UC Davis College of Engineering tied for 37th position with Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. UC Berkeley was rated third, UC San Diego was rated 13th, UCLA was rated 16th and UC Santa Barbara was rated 21st.
The absolute nature of numerical rankings make them popular, but students and campus administrators alike have noted in past that rankings like the U.S. News and World Report ratings should be interpreted cautiously and that personal references from advisers and others, not ratings, tend to be the most influential factors determining which graduate schools students choose to attend.
To find out more about the rankings and methodologies, see http://www.usnews.com.