The School of Law, School of Medicine and Goizueta Business School's full-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) program all rose in U.S. News & World Report's 2014 graduate school rankings released last week.
Among professional school rankings, the law school was ranked No. 23 in the nation, up from No. 24 last year.
The B-School's full-time MBA program was ranked 18th in the nation, a rise from its ranking of No. 19 last year.
In addition, the School of Medicine received a ranking of No. 22 nationally for its research school, as well as No. 29 for primary care, up from No. 40 last year. These professional schools are the top-ranked schools in Georgia.
Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology's joint Department of Biomedical Engineering program maintained its ranking as second in the nation.
U.S. News did not review the Rollins School of Public Health, ranked No. 6, this year, nor did the organization rank the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, currently ranked No. 21; the physician assistant program, ranked No. 4; and the physical therapy program at No. 7.
"It is always gratifying when the efforts of our faculty and student colleagues are recognized by others, whether in formal rankings or in other ways," Lisa Tedesco, dean of the Laney Graduate School, said.
Tedesco said she does not think the rankings will have significant effects on applications or enrollment.
"Graduate admissions are driven by very careful attention to individual programs and intellectual opportunities and resources, and these rankings do not provide that kind of information," Tedesco said.
Schools are often conscious of national rankings and reputation when improving the quality of their institutions, she added.
"We pay a great deal of attention to quality outcome indicators," Tedesco said. "But the [U.S. News] rankings don't provide much information about those indicators, because the rankings rely to a great extent on surveys of educator's views – not data and measures relating to quality outcome indicators."
According to the U.S. News website, ranking methodologies vary by discipline.
But, the website adds, a high emphasis is placed on admissions selectivity and program quality based on expert opinions.
– By Rupsha Basu
