Doug Miller
713-348-6770
doug.miller@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Rice graduate school programs score high in US News rankings
Closely watched national survey rates eight programs among top 25

HOUSTON – (March 30, 2021) – Eight Rice University graduate programs rank among the country’s top 25 in the latest edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”

The George R. Brown School of Engineering, which ranks No. 29 nationally (up from No. 33 last year), has four programs or specialties in the top 25: bioengineering (tied for No. 10, up from No. 12), civil engineering (tied for No. 20, up from No. 27), computer engineering (tied for No. 22, up from No. 23) and environmental engineering (tied for No. 14, up from No. 15).

Other Rice Engineering programs rank in the top 30: chemical engineering (tied for No. 26), electrical engineering (tied for No. 27), materials science (tied for No. 28) and mechanical engineering (tied for No. 26, up from No. 29).

The Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, which ranks No. 25 nationally, has four programs in the top 25: entrepreneurship (tied for No. 10, up from No. 11), management (tied for No. 25), full-time MBA (No. 25), and the professional MBA program that U.S. News ranks in its part-time MBA category (tied for No. 17).

“We are excited about the recent U.S. News and World Report rankings and are proud of where our graduate programs stand,” said Rice Provost Reginald DesRoches. “In addition to the eight programs in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business that ranked among the country’s top 25, I am pleased with our political science program, which was ranked No. 28 (up from No. 33; its international relations program ranked No. 21), and our new sociology program, which was ranked No. 34, an impressive first ranking.”

These rankings are among the nation’s most closely watched annual surveys of academic excellence. U.S. News evaluates universities across six major disciplines — business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing — and publishes the results to help inform prospective students.

The Best Graduate Schools rankings are based on expert opinions and statistical indicators measuring the quality of faculty, research and students. The data came from statistical surveys of more than 2,125 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 23,000 academics and professionals in fall 2020 and early 2021.

For more information on the rankings, go to the U.S. News Best Graduate Schools website.

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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.