MIT remains the top engineering school for the fifth consecutive year in the annual ranking of "America's Best Graduate Schools" by US News & World Report, while the Sloan School of Management moves from sixth to second place, one notch ahead of the Harvard Business School.
Among graduate architectural programs, MIT is rated fifth.
The magazine did not rank graduate science or social science programs this year, as it has at times in the past, a spokesperson said.
As well as ranking MIT first overall in engineering, a separate survey of deans gave MIT close to a sweep in 10 specialty areas in which it has programs. MIT ranked first in seven of them-aerospace, chemical, computer, electrical/electronic, materials/metallurgical, mechanical and nuclear-plus second in civil and fourth in biomedical.
The overall first-place ranking for the School of Engineering was based on several criteria, including student selectivity, faculty resources, research activity and reputation. MIT scored first in reputation ranked by academics (tied with Stanford), reputation ranked by practicing engineers, and research activity; fourth in faculty resources and 13th in student selectivity.
The first 10 schools, in order, were MIT, Stanford University, Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of California at Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin and Carnegie Mellon University.
"I am pleased that we maintained our overall number-one ranking, and the number-one ranking in seven fields of engineering," said Dean Joel Moses. "The move of civil and environmental engineering from third to second is especially gratifying since the corresponding department in Illinois that is in third place now is significantly larger than our own. The increase in rank in biomedical engineering is also gratifying since we formed an interdepartmental Program in Biomedical Engineering recently in order to increase the visibility of our activities in this area."
The Sloan School second-place ranking among graduate schools of management, behind Stanford, was its highest ever. The criteria included student selectivity, placement success, graduation rate and reputation, with Sloan scoring first in placement success and graduation rate, second in student selectivity, third in reputation ranked by academics and eighth in reputation ranked by chief executive officers.
In the top 10, Stanford and MIT were followed by Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, University of Michigan, Duke University and University of California at Los Angeles.
In specialty areas, deans and heads of MBA programs ranked Sloan first in management information systems, production/operations management and quantitative analysis, and fifth in finance.
"This recognition is long overdue and results from the dedicated work by our faculty, staff, students, alumni/ae and past deans-Les Thurow, Abe Siegel and Bill Pounds," said Sloan School Dean Glen L. Urban.
"We can be proud of the quality of our students and innovative programs, the vote of confidence employers give our students and the academic and business respect our faculty research has earned. Our new focus on "innovation driven" organizations in the 21st century along with our commitment to train leaders and give them the advanced tools they need to succeed in these organizations should move us towards the preeminence we aspire to achieve."
A version of this article appeared in the March 16, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 26).
