Improvement for Duke was scarce in the graduate and professional school rankings released today by U.S. News and World Report.
Although the Fuqua School of Business received its highest ranking ever, the School of Law dropped out of the top 10 for the first time and other schools suffered similar decreases.
"Obviously, you'd rather be up than down in the rankings, because it's what many of your constituents look to as the reigning currency of quality," said Dean of the Law School Katharine Bartlett, who sent a letter to the school's community explaining the 12th-place ranking.
"We cannot afford to take the U.S. News rankings lightly," she wrote, "because many of our constituents--particularly, of course, prospective students--pay attention to them." Bartlett will hold an open meeting April 9 to discuss the subject.
In better news for Duke, the business school jumped from No. 8 to No. 6, marking its highest rank ever. The magazine ranked Duke's executive education program third, marketing fifth, both general management and international business eighth and quantitative analysis 10th.
The School of Nursing remained at No. 27, the School of Medicine dropped two spots in research to No. 5 and the Pratt School of Engineering fell from No. 30 to No. 34. Pratt School of Engineering Dean Kristina Johnson could not be reached for comment, and medical school dean Dr. Sandy Williams said he was satisfied.
"I am pleased that Duke once again has been ranked highly among the very finest institutions for medical education," he wrote in an e-mail. "We pride ourselves on preparing leaders and scholars of medical science and clinical practice, and it's nice to know that our efforts are appreciated in this way."
The magazine placed Duke's medical school after Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins University, Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania.
In primary care, the school was ranked No. 20.
Among the individual departments that ranked prominently were physicians' assistants at No. 1, geriatrics at No. 3, women's health at No. 4, internal medicine at No. 6, pediatrics at No. 8 and AIDS at No. 10.
U.S. News also ranked several science graduate programs. Duke's program in biological sciences placed 12th--its neuroscience specialty came in 10th. The prog ram in computer science was No. 20, mathematics No. 25, applied mathematics No. 27, physics No. 32 and chemistry No. 43.
The report also ranked the biomedical engineering program fourth, after Johns Hopkins, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at San Diego.
"We are pleased to see that these latest rankings confirm once again... that Duke's programs are rated among the best in the country," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations.
"At the same time, we also know that magazines which do university and college rankings seem to change their methodologies every year and rankings change, which helps sell more magazines," he said.
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