Where Massachusetts universities landed in annual grad school rankings
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MIT comes out on top. Photo: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images
MIT landed near the top in most categories in the U.S. News’ Best Graduate Schools rankings out today.
- Harvard also ranked high, but its best categories — medical and law — were notably absent from today’s rankings.
Why it matters: Many prospective students use the U.S. News rankings as a guide to determine where they should apply for college and graduate school.
Yes, but: This batch doesn’t include the medical or law school rankings "due to an unprecedented number of inquiries from schools" about the data that goes into the results, the organization said in an email.
Zoom in: Harvard was one of several prestigious universities that boycotted the medical and law school rankings, declining to submit data and challenging the methodology.
- U.S. News went on a listening tour of more than 100 schools and revised its methodology, the New York Times reported.
- The organization used public numbers from sources like the American Bar Association to fill in missing data from boycotting schools, which led to similar rankings results but still upset boycotting schools.
Today’s rankings focus on graduate programs in education, public health, engineering and more. Here are some of the overall rankings.
💵 MBA
MIT ranked No. 4, behind the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania.
- Harvard ranked No. 5.
Of note: Babson College ranked No. 1 in the entrepreneurship program category. MIT ranked No. 3 and Harvard ranked No. 4.
🧪 Chemistry
MIT landed at No. 2. Harvard ranked No. 4.
💻 Computer science
MIT ranked No. 1. Harvard ranked No. 17, UMass Amherst ranked No. 24 and Northeastern University ranked No. 35.
Engineering
MIT ranked No. 1. Harvard landed farther down on the list at No. 23.
- Northeastern ranked No. 32, tying with Penn State.
- Boston University ranked No. 34, tying with University of California - Davis and UC - Irvine.
➗ Math
MIT ranked No. 2. Harvard tied with Stanford University and University of California Berkeley for No. 3.
- Northeastern ranked No. 51. BU and UMass Amherst tied for No. 55.
- Brandeis ranked No. 62.
Physics
MIT ranked No. 1. Harvard ranked No. 4. BU tied with eight other schools for the 38th spot.
🏥 Public health
Harvard landed at No. 2. BU ranked No. 8.
- Farther down the list, Tufts tied with six other schools for No. 36, UMass Amherst tied with six other schools for No. 43 and Northeastern tied with 15 other schools for No. 76
Public affairs
Harvard ranked No. 3. The next-highest Massachusetts school was UMass Amherst, which tied with five other schools for No. 46.
- Brandeis University ranked No. 57, and UMass Boston ranked No. 63.
📚 Education
Massachusetts colleges ranked lower in this category. Harvard and New York University tied for the No. 9 spot, falling behind Columbia University, Northwestern University and others.
- Boston College ranked No. 21.
- UMass Boston ranked No. 43, tying with Rutgers University and the University of Colorado - Boulder.