UMD Graduate Programs Receive High Rankings by U.S. News and World Report

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Many areas of graduate education at the University of Maryland, College Park were highly rated in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 Best Graduate School rankings released today. This included seven placing in the top five and 25 in the top 20. Holding on to No. 1 rankings were Criminology in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) and Counseling/Personnel Services, a joint program in the College of Education and BSOS.

Every year, the U.S. News ranking of “Best Graduate Schools” evaluates graduate programs across six major disciplines in business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing, including specialties in each area. According to U.S. News, these rankings are based on expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research output and student achievement. Beyond these six annual ranked disciplines, U.S. News also periodically ranks graduate programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, health, and many other areas based solely on academic experts' ratings. This year's rankings include rankings in many of these periodically evaluated disciplines.

UMD’s 2022 rankings highlights include:

• The College of Education has five highly ranked programs: Counseling/Personnel Services [program is joint with BSOS] (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 [program is joint with College of Ed.] (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 below fields every year, and it ranks online programs separately. The below UMD rankings are the existing (most current) rankings for these programs, and are available on usnews.com, labeled with the calendar year in which they were originally published:

• The 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 program of Veterinary Medicine has a 2020 ranking of No. 17

• The Robert H. Smith School of Business has a 2020 ranking of No. 10 for Best Online MBA Programs.

• The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences holds a 2021 ranking of No.10 for Audiology

• The Clark School of Engineering’s Online Graduate Engineering programs holds a 2021 ranking of 15

The full U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate School rankings are available here.