Students looking to move on to graduate school may not have to move far to find a top-notch program.
According to U.S. News & World Report, the University's graduate school programs are some of the best bets nationwide - University programs finished in the top 20 in all but one of the magazine's categories of schools and departments.
Graduate concentrations in political science, psychology and library sciences each finished second in the country, while the University's program in sociology received a third-place ranking.
"Our department has been ranked in the top three consistently for about 20 years," said political science department chair John Jackson. "It increases recognition and is reflective of the quality of the department."
Michigan's graduate programs in geology, mathematics, economics and history also finished in the report's top 10.
University professional school programs also fared well in U.S. News' ranking, and they may not be as hard to get into as students think - coming from Ann Arbor.
"Students say it is harder to get accepted after doing work here as an undergraduate - I hear that rumor all of the time and it's not at all true," said Katie Horne, director of admissions at the Medical School. "We are a state school so we accept a lot of in-state students and the truth is a lot of the best students in the state go to U-M."
The University's Law School placed seventh, the College of Engineering is fifth, and the Business School ranked 12th in the nation. Michigan's Medical School and School of Education are ninth.
Erika Munzel, the associate director of admissions for the University's Law School, said the rankings should not be an applicant's only consideration.
"It is something people look at, but those applying should think for themselves about what's important in a law school," Munzel said. "It's easy to compare numbers - but there's more to a law school and to an applicant than numbers."
Munzel said the University's Law School encourages students who have gotten undergraduate degrees from Michigan to apply.
"We have more students who went to Michigan undergrad than any other major law institution in the country," she said. "We have a significant representation of the University in the Law School."
Students who are currently applying for graduate and professional school say the task is a long and tedious one - applications, standardized tests and interviews can be time-consuming.
"It's a difficult process because every school has its own application and its own specific questions they want answered," said LSA senior Jon Mallin, who is applying to law schools. "It's time-consuming, because sometimes specific details take time to pay attention to."
Mallin said he has already applied to the University's Law School and knowing some of the professors and the area may come in handy if he stays in town as a graduate student.
But knowing the ropes in town were not his primary concern when choosing a law school.
"The most serious factors I'm considering are factors which determine the quality of schools," Mallin said. "A school's quality is more important than its location."
U.S. News & World Report's rankings in journalism did not include the University, however. The University journalism program closed its doors last fall by order of the LSA curriculum committee.
AJA DEKLEVA COHEN/Daily
First-year Law student Nakia Hicks studies in the Law Quad. "Law is opening me up to rules that I never knew existed and helping me get ahead in life," Hicks said.