Our New Grad School Rankings Are Online

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After looking at your rankings listed for the graduate MBA and law schools, there are the obvious standard schools that always rank in the top 10 being Harvard, Yale, Duke, etc. but it seems to me that there are no rankings for the schools that many of us commoners would attend-I'm specifically referring to affordability and availability.
In particular, I am referring to so many of these new online-degree programs.
I have a BS degree from the University of Nebraska Omaha, and have been looking for employment for quite some time. Ironically after six months of not being employed, I made a decision to go to graduate school, and wouldn't you know it a full-time job appears.
I am thankful to have the work, but now I am forced to pick an online degree-option due to my lack of hours available in my schedule.
After viewing many websites, I have found myself having to take a crash course on the accreditation of post-secondary schools.
Many schools are accredited and by what means are these schools accredited?
It appears that many of them are accredited by several different standards and there are various agencies that are doing the accrediting as well. It is much too complex and confusing for us returning-to-school working professionals.
Where is the stream-lining of these standards for our colleges and universities as it seems the top rankings are based on money and prestige.

Jamie Cook of CA 8:44PM May 05, 2009

I agree with an earlier comment that states that some of the critiques of the USNWR rankings are frivolous, but I must admit that I think the acceptance/rejection rate criteria is one of the stupidest. Here's why: I think the schools are capable of artificially inflating their rejection rates. I don't know how much of a difference stories like mine make, but I know others who experienced the same, so I'm certainly not alone.
I'm going to start a biosciences PhD program this Fall 2009. I applied to ten schools, primarily out of a paranoid fear that I wouldn't get into any. My top three choices were Harvard, Stanford, and UCSF. Harvard's program is unique in that they admit you without an interview, and the admissions decisions are made in January of the year of entry. January is earlier than the interview at most of the other programs. Soon after my admission to Harvard, I was also admitted to UCSF (which interviews earlier than most schools and makes its decision quickly afterward).
Since I was safe at two of my top three choices, I decided to tell some of the other schools to withdraw my application from the pool of applicants and take no further action. I did this for five schools, essentially rejecting them before they had made a decision. But in the end they still ended up sending me rejection letters.
I'm not absolutely certain, but it seems to me that this is done for the sole purpose of making their schools seem more competitive. They were able to add my rejection letter to their tally of overall rejections, but in doing so they completely ignored the fact that I told them that I wasn't interested anymore.
I guess the point is that all these rejection and admissions statistics should be taken with a grain of salt, as they might not represent real rejections. UCSD is a wonderful school, and thought I can't be certain, I think I probably would have been admitted considering that I was admitted to my top three choices. But I turned them down, they STILL sent me a rejection letter, and now they can claim me, falsely, as another casualty of the fierce competition to get into their school. Seems unethical, and not worthy of being a criterion for rankings.

JD of CA 6:54AM May 02, 2009

Big ommision. This is a highly respected school of Liberal Arts adn Education.

Gary Campbell of VA 5:00PM April 29, 2009

I'm definitely on the USNews-is-awesome bandwagon, but I am highly amused that so many critiques focus on factor EVEN more irrelevant than some of the statistics U.S. News uses.
"1) NJ MBA schools grads are more likely to get a job offer and a better offer than the top b schools because of its strategic location."
- Data please. I know it feels like this must be true, but that doesn't make it so.
"2) Most local B'school grads tend to start there business in this area so certain programs can be better than else where."
- Not seeing any causal relationship between NJ B-schools and the existence of Big Pharma companies. Big Pharma didn't decide to locate in NJ because of NJ B-schools (feel free to prove otherwise). A variety of factors influence business decisions of large corporations (taxes, cost of land, workforce, etc...), but I can't imagine the location of B-schools is one of them. I might be wrong, but I've heard of these people called recruiters who travel to top B-schools to find top talent.
"3) Schools around here are specialized in Pharma and supply chain MBA programs."
- Hard to quibble with that. If your focus is narrow enough, a lot of good schools without the national pizzaz pop up.
"4) NJ being close to NY city the biggest job generator in US, a lot of finance,insurance and advertising jobs are aviable for interns in these schools."
- Just like grads in tech hubs like SF/SJ, NYC/Philly, LA/OC (this actually surprised me, but the area gets a lot of venture money) Boston, NoVA, RTP, Chicago, etc...
"...From a common sense stand point school location place a big role in the job market just think about getting a job in OH, MI,MN,IN or getting a Job NJ/NY area, which is easier? So i am convinced that doing MBA around Nj area is the right move but which school? But looking by numbers Rutgers seems to popular among part-time students as its part-time student body is close to 1100 students. Also rutgers is sorrunded by pharma,pricenton/Rutgers university start-ups,financial and insurance companies so a very good chance of landing a future job offer..."
- Location helps (insurance companies? really?). But doesn't that make the case for areas that have more start-ups, large corporation, etc...?
"2)Private schools and Public schools rankings"
- Why? Aren't the degrees the same?
"3)Wish there was a more specialization rankings like Pharma, Petro-chemicals and Insurance school ranking also."
- How many more specialties do we need?
"Good luck every one."
- seconded

John Hirsch of DC 12:38PM April 29, 2009

I recently moved to NJ from CA. Planning to do an MBA on a part-time basis in NJ as my company likes to pay for it. But i donot see any NJ business schools in the US news ranking to compare with in the area, where as Business week's MBA rankings has good rankings for Rutgers and other local schools around. So which rankings is accurate? Also felt that there is a bias towards big private school in the rankings. Since i am in NJ I did a research on NJ state job market and B'schools in the area, strangely this is what i found:
1)NJ is the second richest state in US, New Jersey also has the highest population density in the United States, and its median income is second highest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_the_United_States_by_income) and sure enough this is due to many small businees clusters in NJ
2) NJ is the Pharma & Bio capital capital of US companies like Merck, Wyeth, Scherring & plough, J&J list goes on....
3) It seems that NJ has the east coast's busiest port http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_busiest_port and has largest passenger transportation company(NJ Transit) and finally
4) Back office work for NewYorks big financial and insurance companies is done in NJ
How this anaylsis is useful? I am glad you asked... Well as future business student one day i need a job and that's why this anaysis is useful to decide, where a school is located, how much impact school and influence has a school on the local community and job market and this is what found:
1) NJ MBA schools grads are more likely to get a job offer and a better offer than the top b schools because of its strategic location.
2) Most local B'school grads tend to start there business in this area so certain programs can be better than else where.
3) Schools around here are specialized in Pharma and supply chain MBA programs.
4) NJ being close to NY city the biggest job generator in US, a lot of finance,insurance and advertising jobs are aviable for interns in these schools.
As result iam having second thoughts with this rankings business. From a common sense stand point school location place a big role in the job market just think about getting a job in OH, MI,MN,IN or getting a Job NJ/NY area, which is easier? So i am convinced that doing MBA around Nj area is the right move but which school? But looking by numbers Rutgers seems to popular among part-time students as its part-time student body is close to 1100 students. Also rutgers is sorrunded by pharma,pricenton/Rutgers university start-ups,financial and insurance companies so a very good chance of landing a future job offer.
Well i guess that's how i did my research, to sum up i wish there was rankings in the following areas also to help me furthur in my search:
1)Part time and full time school rankings
2)Private schools and Public schools rankings
3)Wish there was a more specialization rankings like Pharma, Petro-chemicals and Insurance school ranking also.
Good luck every one.

Yoo Mann of NJ 10:27AM April 29, 2009

I wonder if you could address the part time rankings as it related to New York Law School. As the list of schools with a part time program included "New York Law School" but not "New York University Law School", wouldn't it be possible that a fair number of voters may have confused the two schools? This probably wouldn't be as much of an issue in the full-time rankings, where both schools are listed. But NYLS is #11 in the part time rankings but has only a 2.3 peer assessment score by those same voters in the full-time rankings. You may want to review some of the peer assessment votes, and see if there were a fair number of voters who gave NYLS a low assessment for the full time program but a high assessment for the part-time program. Perhaps next year, when sending out the votes, you could do something in the part time rankings to make clear that NYLS is not associated with NYU.

Penultimate of CT 5:18PM April 28, 2009

What about graduate schools in Marine Sciences ???

Digna Rueda of FL 11:09AM April 27, 2009

Did you not rank music programs? Thanks a lot.

Ben of TX 12:16PM April 26, 2009

a) Alabama might have quality graduates, but it doesn't change the fact that they are poorly represented at top firms (compared to a Columbia or a Yale). That is just reality. If you read what I wrote, you'll notice that my point was about placement outcomes, not that Columbia grads are 'better' than Alabama grads.
b) I'd obviously like any use of salary data to be adjusted to location.
c) I do feel badly about singling out a school (Alabama), as I did earlier. My point was the employment rate of graduates from a law school does not telling you ANYTHING about the kind/quality/prestige of jobs that graduates obtain. The example works just as easily with a Tier 3 school that has a higher employment rate than the top schools.

Ron of AZ 9:39PM April 24, 2009

I hope your score on the LSAT isn't reflective of your bias against Alabama. You are HORRIFICALLY WRONG to think Alabama doesn't have quality graduates. Your rankings by salary are also inflated and will show bias as it is more expensive to live in New York City than reputable urban and rural cities of the South. Will that make Columbia better? Deal with it. Your bias is not smart. Best wishes.

Robert Williams of MA 7:44PM April 24, 2009