Graduate Programs Highly Ranked by U.S. News

Counseling, criminology keep no. 1 ratings; 25 place in top 20.

By Maryland Today Staff | Maryland Today

Dozens of University of Maryland programs earned high ratings in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 Best Graduate School rankings released today, with seven placing in the top five and 25 in the top 20.

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) held onto its No. 1 ranking in Criminology, as did the College of Education and BSOS for their top-ranked joint program, Counseling/Personnel Services.

The magazine each year ranks education, engineering, MBA, law, medical and nursing programs, along with a rotating selection of specialty schools and programs. This year’s group of graduate schools and programs included public affairs, public health, and library and information studies, as well as doctoral programs in economics, English, history, sociology, political science, and criminology and criminal justice.

UMD’s highlights this year include:

• The College of Education has five highly ranked programs: Counseling/Personnel Services (No. 1), Educational Psychology (No. 6), Higher Education Administration (No. 13), Special Education (No. 16) and Curriculum and Instruction (No. 18).
• The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences ranked highly in Criminology (No. 1), Counseling/Personnel Services (No. 1), Sociology of Population (No. 14) and Economics-Development (No. 17).
• The College of Information Studies is ranked No. 4 in the nation. Its spotlighted programs are: Services for Children and Youth (No. 2), Information Systems (No. 5), School Library Media (No. 5), Archives and Preservation (No. 6) and Digital Librarianship (No. 8).
• The School of Public Policy is recognized in Homeland/National Security Public Policy (No. 5), International Global Policy (No. 11) and Public Finance and Budgeting (No. 12).
• The Robert H. Smith School of Business has the No. 9 Information Systems program.
• The College of Arts and Humanities’ American Literature Before 1865 program earned a No. 12 ranking.
• The A. James Clark School of Engineering, ranked 20th in the nation, is rated highly in Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering (No. 13). Electrical/Electronic/Communications (No. 16), Mechanical Engineering (No. 17) and Computer Engineering (No. 18).
• The School of Public Health is ranked No. 20 in the nation. 

U.S. News doesn’t rank graduate programs in the sciences and in certain health-related fields every year, and ranks online options separately; but those rankings are still available on usnews.com and labeled with the calendar year they were originally published: 

• UMD's College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences holds 11 top 20 rankings from 2019: Atomic/Molecular/Optical Physics (No. 6), Quantum Physics (No. 6), Condensed Matter Physics (No. 11), Elementary Particles/Field/String Theory (No. 13), Applied Math (No. 13), Physics (No. 14), Computer Science (No. 16), Artificial Intelligence (No. 16), Computer Science Systems (No. 16) Computer Science Theory (No. 16) and Computer Science Programming Language (No. 17). 
• The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Veterinary Medicine program ranked No. 17 in 2020.
• Maryland Smith's online MBA program ranked No. 10 in 2020.
• The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences’ Audiology program ranked No. 10 in 2021.
• The Clark School’s Online Graduate Engineering program ranked No. 15 in 2021.

The latest rankings are based on surveys of more than 2,000 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 24,600 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2019 and early 2020.

This piece is featured in Maryland Today. 

Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle.