Five Colorado State Colleges Rank Among America’s Best Graduate Schools in U.S. News Report

U.S. News and World Report’s 2008 edition of "America’s Best Graduate Schools" ranks Colorado State University among schools with the top graduate programs in the nation.

Programs in five colleges were ranked, led by the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which tied in the No. 2 position with the University of California-Davis. The college boasts a number of the most prestigious programs in the veterinary medicine discipline, and the majority of discoveries made within the program can be directly related to medicine that also benefits humans.

In the College of Applied Human Sciences, the Career and Technical Education program in the School of Education ranked eighth. The Colorado State School of Education graduate programs in education and human resource studies serve nearly 600 students who work with about 40 full-time faculty members. Colorado State is one of the leading members of the Council for Workforce and Human Resource Education.

Programs in the colleges of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the Warner College of Natural Resources were also ranked again this year:

-The College of Engineering ranked 55th, up from 61st last year. Five programs in the college were ranked: chemical ranked 52nd up from 62nd, with such universities as Clemson and the University of California-Irvine; civil ranked 31st, up from 34th last year, with such universities as Duke and Columbia; mechanical ranked 60th, up from 62nd last year, with such universities as the Illinois Institute of Technology and SUNY-Stony Brook; electrical ranked 57th with such universities as Drexel University, SUNY-Stony Brook and Clemson; and environmental ranked 33rd with such universities as Harvard and the University of Massachusetts.

-Five programs in the College of Natural Sciences were ranked: chemistry ranked 43rd, up from 45th; computer science ranked 60th with Notre Dame, the University of Oregon and Iowa State; biological sciences ranked 77th with such universities as Baylor, Virginia Tech and Georgetown University; mathematics ranked 89th with Tufts University and the University of South Carolina; and physics ranked 81st with the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

-In the Warner College of Natural Resources, earth sciences ranked 70th with Florida State, Michigan State, the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

"We emphasize the importance of a graduate education in a 21st century society so our graduate programs consistently rank among the nation’s best," said Tony Frank, Colorado State Provost and Senior Vice President. "While quality teaching is a priority, our faculty aggressively pursues cutting-edge research that also gives our students hands-on experience."

Other graduate and undergraduate programs offered by the College of Natural Sciences are in the foundational areas of modern science include biochemistry, psychology and zoology. Students in the college become everything from computer programmers to psychiatrists, from chemists to actuarial statisticians.

Colorado State’s College of Engineering offers a wide variety of graduate programs in departments including atmospheric science, chemical and biological engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering.

Earth sciences is within the Department of Geosciences in the Warner College of Natural Resources, which offers a doctoral degree through the geology and watershed science programs, which are internationally renowned. The department capitalizes on its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, Colorado High Plains, and intermontane basins to give students unique educational opportunities in outdoor laboratories as well as in traditional classrooms and laboratory settings.

The latest U.S. News report marks the latest in a series of positive rankings for the university.

In 2005, Colorado State’s occupational therapy master’s degree program ranked seventh, up three places from the 2001 survey, the most recent U.S. News and World Report ranking of this category.

-30-