Where Utah's universities placed in U.S. News' grad school rankings

U.S. News & World Report released its annual graduate school rankings Tuesday, recognizing the University of Utah and Brigham Young University as top schools for their business programs.

Why it matters: The rankings influence many prospective students' higher-ed decisions.

Details: The U and BYU ranked No. 12 and No. 23, respectively, for their MBA entrepreneurship specialties.

• The U was among the top 50 schools for programs, including physician assistant (8), doctor of nursing program (18), algebra/number theory/algebraic geometry (19), chemistry (34), computer science (41), mathematics (43), health care management (47), earth sciences (47).
• BYU’s public management and leadership specialty and public affairs program were listed at 19th and 57th.

The intrigue: U.S. News & World Report announced changes to how it would measure universities in January after several schools boycotted the process and criticized the rankings, calling the annual list "narrow and elitist," Inside Higher Ed reports.

• U.S. News & World Report said it would remove indicators of student debt and how much a school spent per student from its considerations, per The New York Times.
• The publication also said it would rely less on school reputation surveys submitted by academics, judges and lawyers.

What’s next: U.S. News & World Report’s law and medical school rankings will be released later this year.