RIT ranked among best graduate schools

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A. Sue Weisler

Rochester Institute of Technology is among the top colleges and universities in the nation for master’s programs in fine arts, engineering and business, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools.

RIT tied for 27th among universities offering graduate-level studies in fine arts. The rankings are based solely on the results of a peer assessment survey completed in 2011, featuring input from art school deans and other top art school academics at 230 Master of Fine Arts programs in art and design from across the country.

RIT’s rankings among fine arts specialties are as follows:

• Photography, tied for sixth
• Industrial design, tied for eighth
• Multimedia/visual communications, 12th

RIT’s graduate programs in engineering, from the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, ranked 88th in the country. Programs at engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees were surveyed. Engineering school deans and deans of graduate studies rated the programs’ overall quality. Corporate recruiters and company contacts hiring engineers with graduate degrees also participated. Other indicators included student selectivity, faculty resources and research activity.

The master’s in business programs, offered through the E. Philip Saunders College of Business, ranked among the top 100 business schools in the nation. The rankings are based on surveys of business school deans and directors, corporate recruiters and company contacts hiring graduates. The mean starting salary and bonus of 2011 graduates, employment rates and student selectivity were also among the factors weighed.

“We are honored once again to be recognized for our graduate programs at the national level,” RIT President Bill Destler says. “I am always pleased to see us ranked in diverse fields ranging from engineering to business to the fine arts because it validates that we have a wonderful spectrum of graduate degree programs at RIT.”

Adds Hector Flores, RIT dean of graduate studies: “Our wide diversity of offerings, from MFAs to MBAs to graduate degrees in science, technology and engineering, make RIT unique. And our portfolio of Ph.D. programs, from imaging science to microsystems engineering to sustainability, are all highly interdisciplinary.”

America’s Best Graduate School is online at the US New's Best Graduate schools website, and highlights of the rankings will be published in the April 3 edition of U.S. News & World Report.

At the undergraduate level, U.S. News & World Report ranked RIT seventh in the “Best Universities—Master’s (North region)” category. The magazine released these rankings in September. RIT also received the second highest peer assessment score, which is a survey of presidents, provosts and deans from other universities judging a school’s academic excellence.