ASU students looking for a first-class graduate school may want to consider staying in the Valley.
U.S. News and World Report released its annual list of best graduate schools Friday, ranking the W. P. Carey School of Business, the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education and ASU's public affairs program in the nation's top 25 in 2008.
Both the education and public affairs programs were positioned at No. 25 in their respective groups.
The Carey School was ranked No. 22 among graduate business programs, up from 41 last year, becoming only one of five schools in the West to crack the top 25 this year.
Most top-ranked business schools are in the East, said Carey School Dean Robert Mittelstaedt, so this ranking is a particular distinction.
"We are gratified that the outside world is finally recognizing what we do here," Mittelstaedt said.
He said the prominent ranking will help the school secure funds for a new facility whose preliminary plans were approved in January.
"I think the fact that we moved into a higher ranking will help us in the perception of alumni [and other donors]," he added.
Mittelstaedt also said most excelling business schools have constructed new facilities in the last decade, but the Carey school has been housed in the same buildings for more than two decades.
New planned facilities for the business school may propel the school even further up the rankings, he said, but the determining factor driving this year's high rank was the large percentage of graduates finding employment — 97 percent — and the receipt of high salaries by former students — two categories in which schools were graded.
Schools are also rated in overall quality, student selectivity, faculty resources and research activities, said Bob Morris, director of data research for U.S. News and World Report.
"We have reputation surveys we conduct, and then we get views from academics as well as people out in the field," Morris said.
According to its Web site, the magazine collects data from more than 12,000 graduate programs.
But Tirupalavanam Ganesh, assistant dean for information systems with the Fulton College of Education, said translating such complex data into a ranked numeric list can lead to an overly simplistic view of a school's aptitude.
"We are very proud of the fact that we are up there, but I'm not sure it's an accurate representation of our school," he said.
Mittelstaedt also said that, while flattered, he does not put too much stock in the rankings.
And Morris said neither should students.
He said the rankings are meant to serve simply as an aid to choosing colleges, not the end-all decider of rank.
"Nobody should make a decision to go to graduate school solely on any ranking," he said. "That would be the wrong use of the ranking."
Reach the reporter at: daniel.newhauser@asu.edu.
