UMD Graduate Programs Earn High Marks in Latest U.S. News Rankings

Dozens of University of Maryland programs earned high rankings in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-25 Best Graduate Schools lists released Tuesday, with many achieving top-25 placements in overall and specialty categories.

Among UMD’s highlights, the College of Education and the School of Public Health both climbed into the top 25, and the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) earned four top-25 accolades, including No. 15 in artificial intelligence.

“The University of Maryland is proud of its world-class graduate and professional programs in a broad range of disciplines—with dozens of rankings from education to public health to public policy,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “We’re committed to creating the leaders and the experts that our state, nation and world need to take on the toughest challenges.”

Each year, U.S. News ranks graduate programs in education, engineering, business (MBA), law, medicine and nursing, along with a rotating selection of specialty schools and programs. The publication this year on Monday announced a delay of its engineering school rankings; this article will be updated when the numbers are available.

The rankings are based on reputational surveys; business, education and engineering rankings also incorporate quantitative data. The influential lists are widely used by prospective students when considering where to apply.

Overall, the School of Public Health and the College of Education each ranked No. 25, both up from last year. The School of Public Policy was No. 26.

Highlights among UMD’s specific programs this year include:

• CMNS ranked No. 17 for computer science, No. 23 for programming language and No. 22 for theory, which was not ranked last year.
• Robert H. Smith School of Business’ information systems program ranked No. 9, and its part-time MBA program was No. 10, an 11-place jump from last year.
• The College of Education’s ranked programs all earned top-25 accolades, including student counseling at No. 3, education psychology at No. 4, higher education administration and curriculum and instruction at No. 11, special education at No. 12, education policy and elementary teacher education at No. 16, secondary teacher education at No. 18, and educational administration at No. 21.
• The School of Public Policy’s homeland security program moved up one notch to No. 3; it also ranked No. 13 in public finance and cracked the top 25 in public policy analysis (No. 21), urban policy (No. 22) and nonprofit management (No. 23).
• The School of Public Health ranked No. 25 in epidemiology.
• The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences ranked No. 12 in audiology and No. 14 in speech language pathology.

Since U.S. News doesn’t rank all graduate programs annually, other current honors for UMD from previous editions include:

• The Smith School was ranked No. 11 overall for its online MBA program earlier this year, as well as No. 5 for its online marketing MBA and online general management MBA programs, No. 9 among online MBA programs for veterans, and No. 14 for its online master’s in business (excluding MBA).
• The A. James Clark School of Engineering also ranked highly in this year’s online graduate rankings, including a No. 6 overall placement and No. 10 for electrical engineering, No. 13 among programs for veterans and No. 14 for engineering management.
• The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ veterinary medicine program ranked No. 19 in 2024.
• The College of Information Studies was ranked overall No. 4 in 2022, in addition to services for children and youth at No. 2, information systems at No. 5, school library media at No. 5, archives and preservation at No. 6 and digital librarianship at No. 8.
• CMNS’ math program ranked No. 20 overall in 2024, with a No. 15 placement for applied math and No. 24 for math analysis. Its physics program was ranked No. 17 overall that year, with atomic, molecular and optical physics ranking No. 6, quantum physics ranking No. 9 and condensed matter and solid state physics ranking No. 17.
• The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences’ criminology program ranked No. 1 in 2022, and its sociology program ranked No. 24 the same year, with a No. 14 placement in sociology of population. Economics ranked No. 22 in 2023.
• The College of Arts and Humanities’ English program in American literature before 1865 ranked No. 12 in 2022.