U.S. News and World Report released its annual list of top graduate schools for 2007 last week with no change in rank from last year's list for Duke's law, business and medical schools.
The School of Medicine ranked sixth in both research and primary care. The Fuqua School of Business and the School of Law both ranked 11th-failing, for the second time since 2004, to crack the top 10 in their respective categories.
In rankings of doctoral programs, the University ranked fifth in both ecology and evolutionary biology. Rankings for other disciplines were markedly lower, however, with the University ranking 12th in biological sciences overall, 38th in chemistry, 25th in computer science, 21st in mathematics and 29th in physics. The University was ranked 34th for its earth sciences program.
The Pratt School of Engineering ranked 30th on the overall list for engineering schools-climbing two spots from its 2006 ranking. The biomedical engineering program fell one spot from last year's ranking to fifth.
Rankings for doctoral programs in humanities studies were not available.
Provost Peter Lange said although he is proud of how Duke's programs stack up to those at other schools, other factors must be taken into account when evaluating graduate or professional schools.
"[The rankings] tell you the general tier you are in-give you an idea of the group of schools that have units more or less of the quality of your own-but little more than that," he wrote in an e-mail. "In making selections about schools, at the undergrad or grad level, there are many, many other features that are more important in selecting the place to go, even once you have this information."
Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania claimed the top three spots for the best medical schools in the research category, with the University of California at San Francisco and Washington University in St. Louis tying for fourth. Duke finished ahead of Stanford University and the University of Washington-which tied for seventh-in the same category.
In the primary care category, the University of Washington, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Oregon Health and Science University claimed the three highest spots, and the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and University of Massachusetts at Worcester each tied for fourth.
Duke tied for sixth along with East Carolina University, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center and University of Wisconsin at Madison. University of California at San Francisco was ranked 10th in the category.
Several specialties within the School of Medicine were also ranked. Duke was ranked fourth each in the areas of geriatrics and internal medicine-both climbing one spot from their rankings last year. Duke also placed highly in specialty programs concerning AIDS, family medicine and women's healthcare-ranking seventh, eighth and 10th respectively.
Harvard topped the list of best business schools. Duke was tied for 11th with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor's Ross School of Business.
Duke's Fuqua School of Business finished just behind the University of California at Los Angeles' 10th-ranked Anderson School of Business and just ahead of New York University's Stern School of Business and University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, which both tied for 13th.
Yale University topped the list for best law schools. The School of Law's ranking of 11th came behind University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan and the University of Virginia, which all tied for eighth on the list. The School of Law placed just ahead of Northwestern University, which was ranked 12th.
Within the School of Law, the environmental and the intellectual property law programs were ranked eighth and seventh, respectively.
The law school also made the list of "most diverse schools of law" and was included on a list for law schools with the highest employment rates-placing 95 percent of students at jobs by graduation and 100 percent of students within nine months of graduating.
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