U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) ranked the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing master’s program No. 1 in this year’s edition of the “America’s Best Graduate Schools” guide, marking the second consecutive year that the nursing school has claimed the top spot. Emory tied with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (Md.) in the category this year after previously surpassing the school to take the No. 1 spot last year.
The Rollins School of Public Health earned the No. 3 rank for public health schools in a tie with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Mass.), increasing by one position after sitting at No. 4 for the past three years.
In master’s programs categories, the nursing school ranked No. 3 for its nurse practitioner, adult/gerontology, primary care program, ranking above its No. 4 spot last year. The nurse practitioner, adult/gerontology, acute care program remained at No. 4 and the family nurse practitioner program rose to No. 4 from last year’s No. 6 ranking.
Additionally, the USNWR ranked the nursing school’s doctor of nursing practice (DNP) program No. 6 for the third consecutive year. The nursing school’s DNP program earned the No. 3 spot for adult gerontology/primary care, up from No. 6 last year. Adult gerontology/acute care rose from No. 5 to No. 4 and family practice remained at No. 5. The DNP nurse administration management program dropped from No. 1 to No. 6.
The U.S. News & World Report ranked the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing No. 1 in the nation for the second consecutive year. (Natalie Sandlow/Visual Editor)
Goizueta Business School’s full-time master of business administration (MBA) program ranked No. 18 in a tie with the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, slightly dropping from last year’s No. 17 spot. The business school’s executive MBA program rose from No. 14 to No. 13 and the part-time program dropped from No. 19 to No. 20.
The Emory School of Law continued its downward trend, ranking No. 42 in a four-way tie with the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law (Texas) and University of California, Irvine School of Law. This is seven spots lower than the law school’s No. 35 rank last year. Within the law school, both contracts/commercial law and health care law ranked No. 21, business/corporate law ranked No. 22 and constitutional law ranked No. 25.
USNWR ranked Rollins’ environmental health science and social behavior master’s programs No. 3, epidemiology master’s program No. 4 and biostatistics master’s program No. 5. The health policy and management master’s program earned the No. 8 spot, while the Laney Graduate School’s computer science Ph.D. program came in at No. 64.
The USNWR’s ranking for the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. program — which is a joint program between Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology that earned the No. 1 spot for biomedical engineering last year — is not yet available. The medical school and clinical psychology program rankings are also still unavailable due to delays in data analysis. Specific delays include queries about the use of affiliated institutions in the bibliometric data for medical and engineering schools, and concerns about the accrediting body used as a source of reference for clinical psychology program rankings, according to the USNWR.
This comes after Emory dropped to No. 24 in USNWR’s “Best Colleges” ranking for national universities in September 2023.
Correction (4/10/2024 at 7:40 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that USNWR ranked the Laney Graduate School’s environmental health science and social behavior Ph.D. programs No. 3, epidemiology Ph.D. program No. 4, biostatistics Ph.D. program No. 5 and health policy and management Ph.D. program No. 8. In fact, USNWR ranked Rollins’ environmental health science and social behavior master’s programs No. 3, epidemiology master’s program No. 4, biostatistics master’s program No. 5 and the health policy and management master’s program No. 8.
Lauren Yee (25Ox) is a news editor at The Emory Wheel. She is from Hong Kong and is majoring in religion. Outside of the Wheel, Yee serves on the boards of the Phi Gamma Literary Society and the Oxford Ensemble of Shakespearean Artists. In her free time, you can find her playing the saxophone, watching musicals or enjoying an iced oat milk matcha!
Jack Rutherford (27C) is a News Editor at the Emory Wheel. He is from Louisville, Kentucky, majoring in Economics on a pre-law track. When not writing for the Wheel, he can normally be found with the Emory Rowing team or at a Schwartz Center performance. In his free time, Rutherford enjoys listening to classical music or opera, or is out walking in Lullwater.
