The Fuqua School of Business and the School of Law climbed two places each since last year in U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings of graduate and professional schools. Other prominent programs held steady in the index.
The School of Law rose from 12th to a tie for 10th with Northwestern University and the University of Virginia in the rankings this year. Fuqua jumped from 14th to 12th, the School of Medicine remained tied for 6th in research with three other universities and the Pratt School of Engineering remained at 35th place, tying with the University of California-Irvine's Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
"I think the rankings-these rankings, especially-are one measure of the real and perceived quality of our schools and programs, and the fact is that Duke ranks very high in all the areas that we have programs to rank," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. "A top-10 medical school, a top-10 law school, a business school that's knocking on the door of the top 10 and a number of graduate programs that are among the best in the country-certainly this speaks to Duke's excellence in a wide range of fields."
Harvard University kept its perch atop the listings of business and medical schools, Yale University once again had the top-ranked law school and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took top honors among engineering schools across the country.
Duke continued to shine among institutions located below the Mason-Dixon line-Fuqua and the School of Law were the highest-ranked southern schools.
Fuqua's rise in the rankings follows the announcement of the creation of a five-site global network that will support its Cross Continent MBA program, which is slated to launch in August. Schoenfeld noted that Fuqua has enjoyed substantial publicity for the program but declined to pinpoint Fuqua's improved position as the result of its globalization efforts.
"Trying to attribute a move in the rankings to any single program is really difficult because there are so many factors that go into them," he said. "Business schools' rankings in particular tend to be pretty volatile, up and down. Certainly the visibility that we have gotten for the Fuqua programs helps, and it puts us at the top of mind for deans and others who fill out the rankings.... But I don't think we can say that there's any one thing."
Schoenfeld did not single out a reason for the School of Law's rise in the rankings either, noting that the school continues to recruit top faculty, admit students selectively and place graduates in top jobs with high starting salaries-all factors that are taken into account in U.S. News' methodology.
In listings for specific disciplines, the School of Law ranked eighth in environmental law and 10th for intellectual property law. The School of Medicine was rated fourth in geriatrics, fifth in internal medicine, 10th in AIDS, tied for ninth in family medicine and women's health and tied for 45th in primary care. Fuqua placed third in marketing, fourth for its executive MBA program, tied for sixth in international and seventh in management. Pratt took the fourth spot for biomedical/bioengineering.
In the rankings of graduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, Duke's political science program tied for ninth place, English ranked 10th, history and sociology both tied for the 14th spot, economics tied for 19th and psychology tied for 23rd.
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