Skip Navigation
MarylandToday

Produced by the Office of Marketing and Communications

Subscribe Now
Campus & Community

Graduate Programs Recognized by U.S. News & World Report

Education, Public Policy, Engineering Programs, More Ranked Among Best

By Maryland Today Staff

Lee Building

Photo by John T. Consoli

University of Maryland graduate programs performed strongly in the new U.S. News & World Report graduate studies rankings.

University of Maryland schools, colleges and programs were ranked among the strongest in the nation in the annual “Best Graduate Schools” lists released yesterday by U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. News’ 2020 Best Graduate Schools listing evaluated graduate programs across six major disciplines: business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing, and specialties within them. 

The following Maryland programs made the top 10 in the 2020 Best Graduate School rankings: counseling and personnel services (No. 2), homeland/national security (No. 4), education psychology (No. 6), information systems (No. 9) and public finance and budgeting (No. 10).

This year’s highlights include:

  • Seven programs in the College of Education were ranked among the top 20: counseling and personnel services (No. 2), education psychology (No. 6), special education (No. 12), higher education administration (No. 13), secondary teacher education (No. 16), elementary education (No. 16) and education administration (No. 19).
  • The School of Public Policy ranked No. 22 overall with three programs and specialties in the top 20: homeland/national security (No. 4), public finance and budgeting (No. 10) and international global policy (No. 12).
  • The A. James Clark School of Engineering has three programs ranked in the top 20: aerospace engineering (No. 14), electrical engineering (No. 16) and computer engineering (No. 16).
  • The Robert H. Smith School of Business and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources both have one program ranked in the top 20: information systems (No. 9) and veterinary medicine (No. 17).

The rankings are based on expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research output and student achievement.

According to U.S. News, the data for the rankings in all six disciplines came from statistical and reputation surveys sent to tens of thousands of academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2018 and early 2019.

The full U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate School rankings are available here, with UMD’s complete graduate rankings listed here.

Maryland Today is produced by the Office of Marketing and Communications for the University of Maryland community on weekdays during the academic year, except for university holidays.