Baylor Programs Rank High in U.S. News Grad School Survey

Baylor Law School and its trial advocacy program and other Baylor graduate programs, including business, education, and biological sciences, are ranked in the 2007 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools" announced today (Friday, March 31) by U.S.News & World Report.
A number of other graduate programs at Baylor currently are featured in the categories that U.S. News chose not to "newly rank" this year. They include clinical psychology, health services administration, nursing, physical therapy, social work and speech language pathology.

Baylor Law School

The Law School ranks 51st in the magazine's "Top 100 Schools" listing, one spot higher than last year's 52nd place, while Baylor's trial advocacy program is again rated as the sixth best in the United States. Baylor is the only law school ranked at number six in this latest trial advocacy survey. Last year, Baylor shared sixth place with six other law schools.
U.S. News rankings for Baylor's trial advocacy course show impressive gains in recent years. The program has jumped five places from its 11th-place ranking in 2003, and 10 places from the 2002 survey, when it was ranked 16th nationally by U.S. News.
The law specialty rankings, such as trial advocacy, are based solely on votes by law faculty nationwide who are listed in the AALS (Association of American Law Schools) Directory of Law Teachers 2004-2005 as teaching in the field or by directors of clinical or legal writing programs. "They named up to 15 of the best in each field," the magazine points out. "Schools receiving the most votes are listed."
Baylor Law School is tied for its 51st-place overall ranking with Case Western Reserve University, Ohio. For its 2007 rankings, the magazine evaluated 180 accredited law schools nationwide, using 12 "measures of quality." Only three other Texas law schools join Baylor in the Top 100 list - the University of Texas in 16th place; Southern Methodist University, tied with six other schools for 43rd place; and the University of Houston, tied with six other schools for 70th place.
One other Texas law school is ranked in the publication's third tier, and four others are ranked in the fourth tier. Rankings are only given to schools included in the Top 100 Schools category. The third and fourth tiers are listed alphabetically.
Baylor is one of seven Big 12 schools included in the Top 100 Law Schools listing. The others are the University of Texas; the University of Colorado-Boulder (tied for 43rd place spot); the University of Missouri-Columbia (tied for 60th place); the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (tied for 70th place); and the University of Oklahoma (tied for 80th place).
Among published statistics for the Texas and Big 12 law schools ranked by U.S. News, Baylor has the highest percentage of graduates employed nine months after graduation - 97.8 percent. Baylor Law School also has the highest entering undergrad GPA figures (3.51-3.92, 25th-75th percentile) among the Texas and Big 12 law schools in the Top 100 list.

Hankamer School of Business

The Hankamer School of Business, climbing 13 spots on the list since last year, is ranked 77th in the magazine's "Top Business Schools" list, which surveyed 399 master's programs in business accredited by the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business).
"It's nice to have outside acknowledgement of the rising quality of our program," said Dr. Terry S. Maness, dean of the school. "We appreciate seeing our placement on the list climb as a reflection of our continuing efforts to improve our academic experience."
The magazine's evaluations are based on 12 "quality measures," including placement success, student selectivity, acceptance rate, starting salaries, employment rates and peer assessment. Business school deans, directors of accredited master's programs in business, corporate recruiters and company contacts who hire from previously ranked schools were asked to rate programs on a scale from "marginal" to "outstanding."
Among the 399 schools, Hankamer is ranked in the top 19 percent and is tied for 77th spot with the College of William and Mary, Rutgers State University, and the University of Kentucky. Five other Texas business schools are included in the list - the University of Texas at Austin, tied for 18th place; Texas A&M University, tied for 31st place; Southern Methodist University, tied for 41st; Rice University, tied for 44th; and the University of Texas at Dallas, which is tied for 54th place.
Baylor is one of seven Big 12 schools featured in the "Top Business Schools" list. The others are, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University; the University of Colorado-Boulder, tied for 54th place; the University of Missouri-Columbia, tied for 59th; the University of Oklahoma, tied for 66th; and Iowa State University, tied for 75th.

School of Education

Baylor's School of Education is ranked 98th in the publication's "Top Education Programs" category, which is based on a new survey of graduate programs at 276 schools granting doctoral degrees in education.

The Sciences

Baylor also is featured in another recently ranked list, "Top Biological Sciences Programs." Baylor is tied with 12 other schools for the 90th spot in the Biological Sciences (Ph.D.) category, which ranks 163 schools and universities nationwide. U.S. News points out that this ranking was computed in January of 2006, based on data from a survey sent out in the fall of the previous year.

Other Baylor Programs

Many health discipline categories were not newly surveyed by U.S. News this year and retain their rankings from previous years. These "top" current lists include the following Baylor programs:

• the joint Baylor-U.S. Army program - the master of physical therapy degree at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio - which was ranked fifth nationally in a 2004 survey
• another joint Baylor-U.S. Army master's program - in health services administration - which was rated 20th in 2003
• (The Baylor-U.S. Army programs are operated at the Academy of Health Sciences at Fort Sam Houston for students from the armed forces.)
• the master's degree program at Baylor's Louise Herrington School of Nursing in Dallas, ranked 58th nationally in 2003
• the speech-language pathology program, ranked 62nd in the nation in 2004
• Baylor's doctoral program in clinical psychology (PsyD), which was rated 77th in 2004
• and Baylor's master's degree program in social work, which was ranked 87th nationally in 2004.

U.S. News first published a reputation-only graduate school ranking in 1987. The annual "America's Best Graduate Schools" report began in 1990.
The latest graduate school rankings can be found at www.usnews.com. The newsstand book, "America's Best Graduate Schools," will be available at newsstands on Monday, April 3. Many of the rankings will appear in the April 10 edition of U.S.News & World Report magazine, which also hits newsstands April 3.