UC Davis has been recognized once again for its outstanding graduate and professional schools and programs. Our School of Veterinary Medicine continued its No. 2 ranking in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s new report on U.S. graduate schools and programs. And the university scored a fifth-place ranking for biological-agricultural engineering.

These top-10 rankings join others that the magazine reported previously: third-place for ecology-evolutionary biology and 10th-place for sex-gender studies, a specialty of sociology. U.S. News & World Report released the new “2012” rankings on March 15. In addition to the top 10 list, many of the campus’s schools and programs also showed significant increases in their rankings.

The Graduate School of Management’s full-time Master of Business Administration program jumped 14 places, to its best ever ranking of 28th. The magazine surveyed 437 accredited institutions, and none of them showed a bigger gain than the GSM.

The School of Law took what the magazine described as “a significant leap” from 28th to a tie for 23rd, out of 190 accredited schools. It was also ranked among the top 25 law schools nationally for diversity.

The School of Medicine moved from 47th to a tie for 42nd among research medical schools.

The College of Engineering's top-20 rankings included environmental-environmental health engineering, 14th (tie); civil engineering, 16th (tie); as well as biological-agricultural engineering, fifth.

“The new rankings are only one measure of the overall excellence of our academic programs at UC Davis, but I believe they are a good indicator of our commitment to graduate education, which are among our many strengths,” Katehi said. “As we make continued progress on our Vision of Excellence, I am quite confident that these top-flight programs will continue to earn the recognition and reputation they deserve.”

The magazine’s “2012” report also includes rankings for the sciences, social sciences and humanities and fine arts — all of which have been reported previously and have not been updated.

In the sciences (last ranked in 2010), besides receiving a third-place ranking in ecology-evolutionary biology, UC Davis received a 13th-place ranking for topology, a mathematics specialty; a 17th-place ranking for earth sciences; and a 20th-place ranking for overall biological sciences.

In the social sciences and humanities (last ranked in 2009), besides receiving a 10th-place ranking for sex-gender studies, UC Davis scored a 14th-place ranking for U.S. Colonial history, a 15th-place ranking for international economics and a 21st-place ranking for the sociology of population.

As for the fine arts (last ranked in 2008), UC Davis received a 21st-place ranking among 220 master’s programs in art and design, and a 13th-place ranking in ceramics.

On the Web

U.S. News & World Report Graduate School Rankings

UC Davis Facts (including rankings)