Friday, April 01, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NEVADA UNIVERSITIES: Graduate programs make list

UNLV law, education schools among report's top advanced degree programs

Nevada's universities received little play in the latest national ranking of graduate programs released Thursday by U.S. News and World Report.

Stacks of the magazine will hit the stands Monday and eager potential graduate students typically peruse the list to see how their favorite schools match up or where they should apply.

The publication lists the top graduate schools for business, engineering, medicine, education, law, pharmacy, criminology and Ph.D. programs for social sciences and humanities.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas' School of Law again made the selective rankings, along with UNLV's College of Education, which was ranked for the first time by the magazine.

The University of Nevada, Reno's Department of Civil Engineering was also ranked for the first time in the magazine.

The rankings are based on experts' opinions about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of the schools' faculty, research and students. Indicator and opinion data come from surveys conducted in fall 2004 of about 1,300 programs and almost 9,600 academic professionals.

UNLV's 7-year-old law school slipped in its ranking, to No. 90 out of 179 accredited law schools. It was ranked 82nd last year.

"I suspect it was other schools advancing themselves on the U.S. News and World Report criteria more quickly then we did," Dean Richard Morgan said of the slip in rankings. "I think this is just as good of a school today, if not a better school, than we were a year ago."

He said the rankings need to be taken with a "grain of salt," and those thinking about attending law school should do more research than just reading the list. They should examine a school's faculty, program and environment, he said.

This year, the law school's legal writing program was ranked seventh in the country. Its dispute resolution center was ranked 15th, and its clinical training program was ranked 22nd.

It also was selected as one of the most diverse law schools, with 10 percent of its students of Asian American descent and 7.5 percent Hispanic.

The magazine ranked UNLV's College of Education at No. 82 out of 190 schools that responded to the magazine's surveys. It placed its educational psychology program at 19th.

UNR's civil engineering department was ranked 70th out of 179 schools.

The department features the renowned earthquake engineering program and has worked hard over two decades to become a more research-oriented team that continues to emphasize student education, said Manos Maragakis, chairman of the civil engineering department.

"I don't think it's enough for the quality of this program," Maragakis said. "The strategic goal is to be ranked in the top 50."