The U.S. News and World Report recently ranked several of Auburn's graduate programs in the top 100 in the country.
According to the report, the program rankings updated this year include those from the College of Education at 78th and the College of Business' on-campus MBA program at 75th, which is 13 spots higher than last year.
The report also ranked a number of engineering graduate programs in the top 100. Industrial is ranked 31st, aerospace 43rd, chemical 50th, civil 50th, electrical 51st, computer 62nd, materials 66th and mechanical 77th.
The College of Education's Rehabilitation Counseling program ranked 17th in the report.
Daniel Gropper, Associate Dean of Graduate and International Programs in the College of Business, said he is pleased with where the programs in the business school are now, but wants to continue to make improvements.
"The biggest thing is that we try to do high-quality pro- grams and that is more important than chasing the rankings," Gropper said. "We want to do high-quality programs and also promote them so we can get recognition, which in turn helps our students in the job market as well as the university."
Gropper said the rank has to do with GMAT scores as well as the reputation of the programs. Gropper also said the business school ranks are based on the average salary of the students coming out of school.
The rank is also based on the percentage of students who have a job by graduation and up to three months after graduation.
"Salaries have gone up and the placement rate has gone up and I would attribute that both to an improving economy and also to the work from the folks in our department," Gropper said.
Gropper said the main thing is to keep improving on behalf of the students.
"We want to continue to do a good job in the classroom and continue to help the students improve their skills so they are able to receive quality jobs," Gropper said.
George Flowers, dean of the graduate school, oversees all of the graduate programs.
Flowers said having graduate programs that are well ranked and recognized is absolutely critical to the success of the individual programs as well as the university.
"It is important for the students in those programs and if you have well recognized graduate programs, other academic programs across campus benefit," Flowers said.
Flowers attributes the strength of the programs mainly to the faculty.
"The mentoring that the faculty provides the students is first rate," Flowers said. "We also have outstanding students who are interested in our programs as well as fantastic facilities."\0x2028Flowers said Auburn has had well ranked graduate programs for the past 10 to 15 years.
"It is becoming more and more of a hallmark for universities to have a strong graduate and research presence," Flowers said. "Auburn has moved steadily in that direction and as the rankings show, we have become well respected in a variety of fields."
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