Brigham Young University's business and law schools are among the top 50 in the United States, reports U.S. News & World Report in the magazine's April 14, Best Graduate Schools issue.
The Marriott School of Management is ranked 29 for the second straight year, and the J. Reuben Clark Law School is ranked 31, moving from the 37 spot it held last year.
The Marriott School has maintained or improved its standing in every major business school ranking published in the past two years, including those in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week. The school attributes much of this success, says Ned C. Hill, dean of the Marriott School, to the strength of its students and to an increasingly active alumni network.
"We're always gratified to be ranked among the nation's top business schools," says Hill. He adds that this past year has been one of the most challenging the school has seen in terms of the lagging economy and difficult placement environment. "Given these conditions, we're particularly pleased that both our recruiter and peer assessments have improved, providing our graduates an increased advantage."
Rankings from the nation's accredited law and business schools are based on two broad types of data, according to U.S. News. These include, first, opinion data from academic peers and hiring professionals about program quality and, second, statistical indicators that account for "the qualities that students and faculty bring to the educational experience and measures of graduates' achievements that can be credited to their educational experience."
"While the U.S. News rankings are, at best, only a rough indicator of the relative strength of law schools," says Dean H. Reese Hansen of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, "we are very pleased to be ranked among the top-tier law schools in the country. We are also pleased to note that the strong reputation of the BYU law school among lawyers and judges continues to grow."
In addition, the academic credentials of BYU's law students rank among the best of the other top-tier schools. "We are grateful for the support of the university, the board of trustees and our alumni and others who make a legal education at BYU the best buy anywhere," said Hansen.
This year in the business rankings, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT and Northwestern are ranked in the top five. Among law schools, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and New York University topped the list.
Full ranking reports are available in the newsstand book "America's Best Graduate Schools" and online at www.USNews.com.
Writer: Carri P. Jenkins
