The Graduate and Professional programs within the Departments of Biology and Political Science and Public Administration rank among the nation’s best, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools Rankings.

The rankings, released today and available online at usnews.com, include the graduate program in the Department of Biology (No. 62) and the Public Affairs MPA program in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration (No. 72).

In addition, the graduate program in the Department of Computer Science was listed in the Best Online Graduate Computer and Information Technology Programs (No. 19).

“These rankings reflect our commitment to academic excellence and the broad diversity of intellectual pursuits in the College of Arts and Sciences,” says Dr. Robert E. Palazzo, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Each year, U.S. News ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law, nursing and medicine, including specialties in each area. The rankings in these six areas are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research, and students. Indicator and opinion data come from statistical surveys of more than 2,012 graduate programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 20,500 academics and professionals in the ranked disciplines. The surveys were conducted during the fall of 2017 and in early 2018. In each field, rankings of programs in various specialty areas based on reputation data alone are also presented.

The magazine also ranks programs in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities on a rotating basis, usually every three years. These rankings are based solely on the ratings of academic experts.

U.S. News made a number of key updates to the methodologies this year. For the most detailed explanations of these changes, visit usnews.com/education.