NRC Ranking: 19 Penn Graduate Programs are in the Top Ten

Nineteen Penn graduate programs were ranked among the top ten in their fields by the Committee for the Study of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, a committee appointed and sponsored by the National Research Council.

In the Committee's 750-page report released last week, Penn's Graduate Group in Physiology was ranked third out of the 135 programs studied. Also ranking in the top five programs in their fields were bioengineering, French, and linguistics.

Bioengineering was ranked first in the country in program visibility, while French and linguistics were ranked third and second in the number of awards and honors earned by faculty.

Anthropology, history of art, chemical engineering, economics, English, materials science, music, pharmacology, psychology, religious studies, sociology and Spanish were also ranked as among the 10 best programs in their fields. English and religious studies were ranked number one nationally in faculty awards and honors, while linguistics and music ranked number two and three in this category.

"The National Research Council ranking of graduate programs is the most comprehensive and the most widely respected in the nation," said Dr. Janice Madden, Vice Provost for Graduate Education, who provided the details and tables here. "Their last study of graduate education was in 1982. The most recent study includes 3,634 research- doctorate programs at 274 U.S. universities in 41 fields, and is an effort to update and expand the 1982 study. The new study includes all the fields covered in the 1982 study, while redefining the biological fields and adding eight new fields: comparative literature, religion, aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, materials sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, and oceanography."

The report ranks programs primarily by the scholarly quality of program faculty and the effectiveness of the graduate programs, she added, although other rankings and measures of quality are included. The scholarly quality of the faculty and the effectiveness of the graduate program were derived from the Spring 1993 National Survey of Graduate Faculty. Each program was evaluated by 100 to 200 faculty members who were identified by the research universities as active scholars in the field. These faculty were provided data on each program that they were asked to rate.

Most of the other Penn programs ranked were easily in the top quarter of the programs studied, Dr. Madden pointed out: Biochemistry and molecular biology were ranked together at 16 out of 107, cell and developmental biology at 23 of 165, chemical engineering 11 of 93, chemistry 25 of 168, comparative literature 11 of 44, ecology (a part of biology) 14 of 127, history 12 of 111, mathematics 22 of 135, mechanical engineering 22 of 110, molecular and general genetics 20 of 102, and physics 17 of 147.

Penn programs that have climbed in the rankings since 1982 include history of art which moved from 11 to 9, chemistry from 29 to 25, English from 11 to 8, French from 7 to 5, music from 8 to 7, philosophy from 31 to 27, and statistics from 35 to 28. Sociology moved from 12 to 9 in graduate program effectiveness.


Three Reactions to the Graduate Ranking

We are gratified that our graduate programs continue to be recognized as among the best in the nation. The majority of Penn programs which were ranked were in the top 10. Recent additions to our faculty have improved our ratings in several fields. Reputation rankings always seem to lag behind the reality of improving programs, however. We are confident that future rankings will be higher and a more accurate reflection of the high quality doctoral programs at Penn.
-- Dr. Janice Madden, Vice Provost for Graduate Education

Eleven Arts and Sciences programs were in the top ten in the nation, with others ranked eleventh or twelfth. Many of our programs have far fewer faculty than other programs in the same field. In that light, these results are all the more laudatory of our highly talented faculty. Because of their smaller size, some of our programs specialize in subfields and are widely recognized as being among the best in their field in those specializations, such as neutrino studies in the Department of Physics, and American studies in the Department of History.
-- Dr. Walter Licht, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, SAS

We are absolutely delighted that as a result of our excellent faculty, over 25% of the graduate programs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science considered by NRC were rated by our peers to be in the top ten, and that all but one of our programs were rated in the top 25.
-- Dr. Dwight Jaggard, Associate Dean for Graduate Education

and Research, SEAS


The tables in these pages, compiled by Vice Provost Janice Madden from the 750-page report of the National Research Council, list all the areas where the University of Pennsylvania was ranked and includes the top 10 institutions in each field. If a Penn program was not listed in the top ten, Penn's ranking is listed.

The rank shown in the first column is based on the evaluation of the quality of the faculty; the rank in the second column is based on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the program in producing doctorates.

The full report, titled Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States--Continuity and Change, is available from the National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW, Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055,

(or fax to [202] 334-2793). The tables in their entirety are also on the World Wide Web, and can be accessed via http://www. nas.edu/nap/online/researchdoc/researchdoc_tables.html.

Arts/Humanities

Art History
Columbia 1 3
New York University 1 2
U.C.-Berkeley 3 4
Harvard 4 5
Yale 5 1
Princeton 6 6
Johns Hopkins 7 12
Northwestern 8 8
U. of Pennsylvania 9 9
U. of Chicago 10 10
U. of Michigan 11 7

Classics
Harvard 1 4
U.C.-Berkeley 2 1
U. of Michigan 3 2
Princeton 4 3
Yale 5 6
Brown 6 8
U. of Chicago 7 14
U. of Texas 8 9
U.C.L.A. 9 11
Columbia 10 13
U. of North Carolina 11 5
Cornell 12 10
Bryn Mawr College 14 7
U. of Pennsylvania 13 18

Comparative Literature
Yale 1 1
Duke 2 7
Columbia 3 5
Harvard 4 6
Princeton 5 3
Cornell 6 8
Johns Hopkins 7 2
U.C.-Irvine 8 10
Stanford 9 9
U.C.-Berkeley 10 4
U. of Pennsylvania 11 11

English Language & Literature
Yale 2 2
U.C.-Berkeley 2 1
Harvard 2 8
U. of Virginia 4 5
Duke 5 10
Stanford 5 4
Cornell 7 2
U. of Pennsylvania 8 6
Columbia 8 13
U. of Chicago 10 7
Johns Hopkins 11 9

French Language & Literature
Yale 1 1
Princeton 2 2
Duke 3 8
Columbia 4 5
U. of Pennsylvania 5 4
Stanford 6 12
U.C.-Berkeley 7 5
Cornell 8 3
U. of Michigan 9 9
U.C.-Irvine 10 27
U. of Wisconsin 11 7
U. of Virginia 13 10

German Language & Literature
U.C.-Berkeley 1 2
Princeton 2 1
Cornell 3 4
Harvard 4 3
Yale 5 5
Stanford 6 7
Washington University 7 8
U. of Virginia 8 9
Johns Hopkins 9 11
U. of Wisconsin 10 6
U. of Minnesota 11 10
U. of Pennsylvania 16 17

Linguistics
M.I.T. 1 2
Stanford 2 4
U.C.L.A. 3 3
UMass.-Amherst 4 1
U. of Pennsylvania 5 7
U. of Chicago 6 8
U.C.-Berkeley 6 13
Ohio State 8 12
Cornell 9 5
U.C.-Santa Cruz 10 6
U. of Arizona 12 9
U. of Connecticut 16 9

Music
Harvard 1 2
U. of Chicago 2 1
U.C.-Berkeley 3 4
C.U.N.Y. Grad.Sch. 4 9
Yale 5 4
Princeton 6 3
U. of Pennsylvania 7 9
U. of Rochester 8 6
U. of Michigan 9 6
U. of Illinois 10 12
Cornell 11 8

Philosophy
Princeton 1 1
U. of Pittsburgh1 2 2
Harvard 3 9
U.C.-Berkeley 4 11
U. of Pittsburgh2 5 3
U.C.L.A 6 6
Stanford 7 5
U. of Michigan 8 8
Cornell 9 4
M.I.T. 10 7
U. of Arizona 11 10
U. of Pennsylvania 27 24
Note: 1 Philosophy
2 History and Philosophy of Science

Religion
U. of Chicago 1 2
Harvard 2 1
Princeton 3 4
Duke 4 3
Emory 5 6
U. of Virginia 6 9
Vanderbilt 7 8
Princeton Theol.Sem. 8 5
U.C.-Santa Barbara 9 11
U. of Pennsylvania 10 15
Jewish Theol.Sem. 10 12
Hebrew Union Coll. 13 7
Columbia 14 10

Spanish
Columbia 1 10
Duke 2 24
Brown 3 1
Princeton 4 5
U. of Virginia 5 7
U. of Pennsylvania 6 11
U. of Wisconsin 7 4
Cornell 8 3
U.C.-Berkeley 9 6
Harvard 10 12
U. of Kansas 11 1
U. of Texas, Austin 12 9
U. of Michigan 13 8

Social/Behavioral Sciences

Anthropology
U. of Michigan 1 1
U. of Chicago 1 2
U.C.-Berkeley 3 3
Harvard 4 5
U. of Arizona 5 7
U. of Pennsylvania 6 4
Stanford 7 6
Yale 9 12
U.C.L.A. 9 8
U.C.-San Diego 9 10
U. of Illinois 14 9
Johns Hopkins 21 10

Economics

U. of Chicago 1 3
Harvard 1 5
M.I.T. 3 1
Stanford 4 4
Princeton 5 2
Yale 6 9
U.C.-Berkeley 7 7
U. of Pennsylvania 8 11
Northwestern 9 8
U. of Minnesota 10 6
U. of Rochester 14 10

History
Yale 1 1
U.C.-Berkeley 2 2
Princeton 3 3
Harvard 4 12
Columbia 5 7
U.C.L.A. 6 10
Stanford 7 4
U. of Chicago 8 8
Johns Hopkins 9 5
U. of Wisconsin 10 6
U. of Michigan 11 9
U. of Pennsylvania 12 11

Political Science
Harvard 1 3
U.C.-Berkeley 2 4
Yale 3 2
U. of Michigan 3 1
Stanford 5 5
U. of Chicago 6 10
Princeton 7 8
U.C.L.A. 8 14
U.C.-San Diego 9 12
U. of Wisconsin 10 9
U. of Rochester 11 6
U. of Minnesota 13 7
U. of Pennsylvania 42 53

Psychology
Stanford 1 1
U. of Michigan 2 2
Yale 3 5
U.C.L.A. 4 12
U. of Illinois 5 3
Harvard 6 10
U. of Minnesota 7 4
U. of Pennsylvania 8 6
U.C.-Berkeley 9 14
U.C.-San Diego 10 8
Carnegie Mellon 11 7
Princeton 13 9

Sociology
U. of Chicago 1 2
U. of Wisconsin 2 1
U.C.-Berkeley 3 11
U. of Michigan 4 3
U.C.L.A. 5 6
U. of North Carolina 6 4
Harvard 7 12
Stanford 8 7
Northwestern 9 10
U. of Washington 10 8
U. of Pennsylvania 11 9
Indiana U. 12 5

Biological Sciences

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
U.C.-San Francisco 1 1
M.I.T. 2 2
Stanford 2 4
U.C.-Berkeley 4 3
Harvard 5 5
Yale 6 8
CalTech 7 6
U. of Wisconsin 8 9
U.C.-San Diego 9 7
Johns Hopkins 10 10
Columbia 10 11
U. of Pennsylvania 16 17

Cell & Developmental Biology
M.I.T. 1 2
Rockefeller Univ. 2 4
U.C.-San Francisco 3 3
CalTech 4 1
Harvard 5 7
Stanford 6 6
U.C.-San Diego 7 12
U. of Washington 8 9
Washington Univ. 9 8
Yale 10 10
Princeton 11 5
U. of Pennsylvania 23 24

Ecology, Evolution & Behavior
Stanford 1 4
U. of Chicago 1 2
Duke 3 1
Cornell 4 3
U.C.-Davis 5 8
Princeton 6 10
U. of Washington 7 5
U.C.-Berkeley 8 6
U. of Wisconsin 9 7
S.U.N.Y.-Stony Brook 10 11
U. of Texas 10 13
U. of Michigan 12 9
U. of Pennsylvania 14 17

Molecular & General Genetics
M.I.T. 1 2
U.C.-San Francisco 2 1
Harvard 3 3
CalTech 4 4
Stanford 5 5
U.C.-San Diego 6 10
U. of Wisconsin 7 6
Yale 8 7
Johns Hopkins 9 13
U.C.-Berkeley 10 9
U. of Chicago 11 8
U. of Pennsylvania 19 22

Neurosciences
U.C.-San Diego 1 2
Yale 2 4
Harvard 3 6
U.C.-San Francisco 4 3
Stanford 5 1
Columbia 6 8
Johns Hopkins 7 6
Washington Univ. 8 5
U.C.-Berkeley 9 12
CalTech 10 10
U. of Pennsylvania 10 11
Rockefeller 13 9

Physiology
Yale 1 1
U.C.-San Diego 2 2
U. of Pennsylvania 3 7
U.C.L.A. 4 5
U.C.-San Francisco 5 6
Baylor College 5 10
U. of Washington 7 4
Stanford 7 3
U. of Virginia 9 11
Columbia 9 11
U. of Illinois 20 8
U. of Chicago 11 9

Pharmacology
Yale 1 1
U.Texas-SW Med. Ctr. 2 5
U.C.-San Diego 3 13
Johns Hopkins 4 2
Duke 5 6
Vanderbilt 6 3
Harvard 7 9
U. of North Carolina1 8 10
U. of Washington 9 8
U. of Pennsylvania 9 7
U. of North Carolina2 16 4

Note: 1 Arts and Sciences
2 Medicine, Pharmacology and Public Health

Physical Sciences

Chemistry
U.C.-Berkeley 1 2
CalTech 2 1
Harvard 3 4
Stanford 3 4
M.I.T. 5 3
Cornell 6 6
Columbia 7 8
U. of Illinois 8 7
U. of Wisconsin 10 10
U. of Chicago 10 11
U.C.L.A. 10 13
Yale 12 9
U. of Pennsylvania 25 23

Computer Sciences
Stanford 1 2
M.I.T. 2 1
U.C.-Berkeley 3 3
Carnegie Mellon 4 5
Cornell 5 4
Princeton 6 10
U. of Texas 7 11
U. of Illinois 8 8
U. of Washington 9 6
U. of Wisconsin 10 9
CalTech 12 7
U. of Pennsylvania:
Computer Info. Sci. 24 21
Decision Sci. 45 43

Geosciences
CalTech 1 1
M.I.T. 2 2
U.C.-Berkeley 3 4
Columbia 4 3
Stanford 5 8
U.C.-San Diego 6 5
U. of Chicago 7 7
Harvard 8 14
Stanford 9 5
Cornell 9 16
U. of Pennsylvania 79 76

Materials Science
M.I.T. 1 1
Northwestern 2 4
Cornell 3 3
U.C.-Berkeley 4 4
U. of Illinois 5 7
Stanford 6 6
U. of Massachusetts 7 2
U.C.-Santa Barbara 8 10
Penn State 9 8
U. of Pennsylvania 10 12
Carnegie Mellon 11 9
R.P.I. 13 10

Mathematics
U.C.-Berkeley 1 6
Princeton 1 1
M.I.T. 3 4
Harvard 4 3
U. of Chicago 5 2
Stanford 6 5
Yale 7 8
New York Univ. 8 7
U. of Michigan 9 14
Columbia 9 11
Cornell 15 10
Brown 16 9
U. of Pennsylvania 22 25

Physics
Harvard 1 1
Princeton 2 2
M.I.T. 3 3
U.C.-Berkeley 3 7
CalTech 5 4
Cornell 6 6
U. of Chicago 7 5
U. of Illinois 8 8
Stanford 9 9
U.C.-Santa Barbara 10 11
Yale 13 10
U. of Pennsylvania 17 18

Statistics & Biostatistics

Stanford 1 1
U.C.-Berkeley3 1 2
U.C.-Berkeley4 3 7
Cornell 4 6
U. of Chicago 5 3
U. of Washington4 6 4
Harvard 7 11
U. of Wisconsin 8 5
U. of Washington3 9 9
Purdue 10 15
Iowa State U. 14 8
Carnegie Mellon 16 10
U. of Pennsylvania 28 33>

Note: 3 Statistics
4 Biostatistics

Engineering

Biomedical Engineering
M.I.T. 1 2
U.C.-San Diego 2 1
U. of Washington 3 6
Duke 4 12
U. of Pennsylvania 5 9
Johns Hopkins 6 3
U.C.-San Francisco 7 5
U.C.-Berkeley 8 7
U. of Utah 9 10
Rice 10 4
Stanford 12 8

Chemical Engineering
U. of Minnesota 1 1
M.I.T. 2 2
U.C.-Berkeley 3 2
U. of Wisconsin 4 4
U. of Illinois 5 6
CalTech 6 7
Stanford 7 5
U. of Delaware 8 8
Princeton 9 9
U. of Texas 10 13
U. of Pennsylvania 11 10
Cornell 13 10

Electrical Engineering
Stanford 1 1
M.I.T. 2 2
U. of Illinois 3 3
U.C.-Berkeley 4 4
CalTech 5 5
U. of Michigan 6 6
Cornell 7 7
Purdue 8 10
Princeton 9 9
U.S.C. 10 15
U.C.L.A. 10 11
Carnegie Mellon 12 8
U. of Pennsylvania 41 45

Mechanical Engineering
Stanford 1 1
M.I.T. 2 3
U.C.-Berkeley 3 1
CalTech 4 4
U. of Michigan 5 8
Princeton 6 5
Cornell 7 9
U. of Minnesota 8 11
U. of Illinois 9 6
U.C.-San Diego 10 13
Purdue 10 7
Northwestern 12 10
U. of Pennsylvania 22 25