Baylor Graduate and Professional Programs Ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Edition of Best Graduate Schools

WACO, Texas (March 30, 2021) – Several Baylor University graduate and professional programs were among those nationally ranked in the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings, released March 30.

The latest rankings include newly ranked Baylor professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, public health, social sciences and humanities and specialties in some of these areas.

Baylor Law School

Baylor Law is ranked No. 58 in the U.S. News Best Law Schools listing for 2022, with the law school’s renowned trial advocacy program rated No. 2 in the nation.

The U.S. News rankings of 193 law schools fully accredited by the American Bar Association evaluate institutions on their successful placement of graduates, their faculty resources, the academic achievements of entering students and opinions by law schools, lawyers and judges on overall program quality. Data were collected in fall 2020 and early 2021. Specialty rankings are based solely on peer assessment surveys administered to law school faculty who teach in that specialty area.

Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business

Business graduate programs in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business are ranked at No. 60 overall among the U.S. News Best Business Schools, with the graduate program in entrepreneurship rising five places into the top 10 at No. 10 in the nation.

Not newly ranked but noted in the Best Business School rankings is the MBA in health care administration, a specialization in Baylor’s MBA program in the Hankamer School of Business, which is rated No. 17 in the nation. In the U.S. News online rankings released in January, Baylor’s online MBA program jumped to No. 45 nationally.

To determine the new rankings, in fall 2020 and early 2021, U.S. News surveyed all 486 institutions with master's level business programs in the United States accredited by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, widely considered the gold standard of business school accreditation. The rankings were calculated on peer and recruiter assessments, placement success and student selectivity. Specialty rankings are based solely on ratings by business school deans and directors of AACSB-accredited MBA programs from the list of schools surveyed.

Baylor Louise Herrington School of Nursing

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing – which includes programs in anesthesia nursing, executive nurse leadership, family nurse practitioner, neonatal nurse practitioner, nurse-midwifery and pediatric nurse practitioner – is ranked No. 60 nationally.

Not newly ranked but noted in the Best Nursing specialty rankings are LHSON’s U.S. Army Graduate Program in Anesthesia Nursing (USAGPAN), which operates at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, at No. 8 nationally, while Baylor’s nurse-midwifery program is ranked at No. 21 in the nation.

For the Best Nursing Schools rankings, U.S. News surveyed 597 nursing schools with master's or doctoral programs accredited by either the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing. The DNP rankings are based on peer assessment, faculty resources, student selectivity and program size and research activity. Specialty rankings are based solely on assessments by nursing school deans and deans of graduate studies.

Baylor Health Disciplines

In the new Health Disciplines rankings, U.S. News ranked Baylor's Master’s of Public Health (MPH) degree program with specializations in community health, environmental health science or epidemiology in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, at No. 72.

The U.S. News Best Health Schools rankings are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent in fall 2020 and early 2021 to deans, other administrators or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline.

Several Baylor graduate health programs were not newly ranked this year but are still noted in the U.S. News rankings:

• U.S. Army-Baylor doctor of physical therapy degree in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at No. 13. (U.S. Army-Baylor health programs are operated at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.)
• Speech-language pathology in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at No. 55.
• Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) in the College of Arts & Sciences at No. 101.

Other Baylor graduate health programs that were ranked last year by U.S. News but not newly ranked include:

• The U.S. Army-Baylor master’s degree program in health care management in the Hankamer School of Business at No. 9. (U.S. Army-Baylor health programs are operated at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.)
• Social work graduate programs in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, at No. 59.

Baylor’s School of Education

The Baylor School of Education’s graduate program moved up in the U.S. News Best Education Schools rankings to No. 144.

For the U.S. News rankings of graduate education programs, 438 schools granting doctoral degrees were surveyed in fall 2020 and early 2021. The rankings were based on peer and educational professional assessments, research activity, student selectivity and faculty resources. Education specialty rankings are based solely on nominations by education school deans and deans of graduate studies at education schools from the list of schools surveyed.

Baylor School of Engineering and Computer Science

In the U.S. News graduate rankings of engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees, the graduate engineering program in Baylor’s School of Engineering and Computer Science is ranked No. 127 among Best Engineering Schools.

In the engineering specialty rankings, Baylor’s graduate electrical engineering program moved up 22 places to No. 107, while the graduate program in mechanical engineering moved up five places to No. 112.

To determine the rankings, U.S. News surveyed 216 engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees in fall 2020 and early 2021. Rankings were calculated based on peer and recruiter assessments, faculty resources, student-faculty ratios, research activity and student selectivity. Engineering specialty rankings are based solely on peer assessments by department heads in each specialty area.

Baylor Social Sciences and Humanities

Newly ranked Baylor graduate programs in the social sciences and humanities in the College of Arts & Sciences included:

• English, No. 99
• History, No. 113
• Political Science, No. 103
• Sociology, No. 84
• Psychology, No. 98 (not newly ranked)

The rankings of doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to academics in each discipline. U.S. News conducted the survey of doctoral programs in economics, English, history, political science, sociology and criminology and criminal justice in fall 2020 and early 2021.

Baylor Sciences

Baylor graduate sciences programs in the College of Arts & Sciences not newly ranked but included in the U.S. News rankings are:

• Biology, No. 85
• Chemistry, No. 88
• Earth Sciences (Geosciences), No. 99
• Mathematics, No. 117
• Physics, No. 124
• Statistics, No. 83

Rankings of doctoral programs in the sciences are based solely on the results of surveys sent to academics in biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, mathematics, physics and statistics.

The Best Graduate Schools rankings of professional school programs – in business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing – are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students. The data for the rankings in all six disciplines came from statistical surveys of more than 2,125 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 23,000 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2020 and early 2021.

Beyond the six major disciplines ranked annually, U.S. News also periodically ranks programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, health and many other areas based solely on academic experts' ratings.

U.S. News first published a reputation-only graduate school ranking in 1987. The annual “America’s Best Graduate Schools” report began in 1990.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 19,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.