When U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings of national graduate and professional education programs yesterday, a slight variation from last year's rankings was the only noticeable trend.
The magazine ranked the University first in the categories of health services administration and social work.
William Weissert, the University's health management policy department acting chair, said the department has been ranked number one for the last four years, and has remained consistent.
"Certainly everybody (in the department) tries very hard to stay at number one," Weissert said. "We continue to be ranked number one, and if you ask people in the field, I think that they'll tell you that."
Associate Vice President for University Relations Lisa Baker said the University is happy that its programs and schools continue to rank near the top of the list.
"As always, we are pleased to be ranked highly on the U.S. News & World Report survey," Baker said. "We continually rank high in academic reputation, which is a key measure for us."
Baker said that although the rankings in the survey are high, they still may not be the best evaluation system.
"We are in good company, but this is, after all, a magazine survey and there are other more rigorous evaluations that are obviously more important," Baker said.
The University's School of Engineering moved down from its fifth-place ranking in 1996 to a seventh-place ranking this year.
Associate Engineering Dean William Martin said the drop does not concern him.
"It doesn't make any difference if you are going up or down one or two spots," Martin said. "If you are in the top group, that's all that is important."
Martin said the rankings indicate that the school is consistently in a respectable range.
"We'd like to be number one," Martin said. "We'd like to be better and we are working on it."
The School of Business Administration, the School of Law and the School of Medicine all retained the same rankings they received last year.
The School of Business tallied in at No.12, the School of Law at No. 7, and the School of Medicine at No. 9.
School of Business Associate Dean Edward Snyder said there is a discrepancy between the results of the U.S. News survey and the Business Week survey - which ranked the University's MBA program second in the nation. The standards of review each magazine uses may affect the resulting rankings they produce, he said.
"Using the methodology that was used, this is an accurate rating," Snyder said. "(U.S. News & World Report) puts a lot of weight on median starting salary. Michigan graduates get salaries that are consistently high in each of their (specialized) areas."
Snyder said this type of analysis may hurt the University's rankings.
"But our students tend to pursue a very balanced set of careers, which we value," Snyder said. "The rankings do not look at where the salaries are conditionally. That ends up generating pretty important differentials in terms of the medians."
Whether or not the rankings are the most accurate, they are significant because they attract people's attention, Martin asserted.
"I think they are serious to the extent that people think they're serious," Martin said.
Law first-year student John Signorino said U.S. News & World Report rankings did not affect his decision to come to the University.
"I am not concerned at all about rating," Signorino said. "I picked this school because of a recommendation from a friend. I did not rely on what these reports say."