Both the Rawls College of Business Administration’s and the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering’s graduate schools were ranked in the top 100 ‘Best Grad Schools’ announced Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.
Rawls College of Business building
The lists separately ranks schools by their areas of study. The best business schools section ranked Tech’s business college as the 87th best graduate school, tying with four other business schools across the country. The college of engineering’s graduate school was in a five-way tie for No. 94 in the list of the best engineering schools.
U.S. News & World Report ranks schools by a number of factors, according to its website. The company ranks all schools using a combination of peer assessments, including deans from other colleges and employers that have hired graduates of the program. The World Report’s website said it also takes into account the number of people who applied and GRE scores of the students accepted into the program.
For the best engineering schools list, the magazine’s website said in addition to the previous categories, it takes into account the resources available to the faculty and students, such as the student-faculty ratio and the amount of research conducted in each college.
In addition to the peer evaluations and the quality of students accepted, the World Report said it ranks the best business schools by evaluating the number of students who find jobs after graduation and their mean starting salaries.
Lance Nail, dean of the business college, said he was glad the faculty’s hard work has been recognized.
“This is a testament to the hard work and dedication to excellence that our faculty and staff have given to help the college achieve its goals and full potential,” Nail said in a release from the university. “Our team has not only accomplished great things in our graduate programs, but they have also been effective in communicating our success to others outside of the college. This ranking reflects that others recognize our commitment to excellence in graduate business education.”
Five disciplines from Tech’s engineering college also earned top-100 rankings within U.S. News & World Report’s department lists. The industrial engineering
Entrance Hall of the New Terry Fuller Petroleum Engineering Building
department earned the highest rank by any of Tech’s engineering disciplines at No. 51, tying with four other schools that teach industrial, manufacturing or systems engineering. Both the civil and chemical engineering departments at Tech were ranked on the individual list at No. 68. The civil engineering department tied with seven other schools, while Tech’s chemical engineering tied with five other schools for its No. 68 ranking.
“I am pleased we are being recognized by our peers for our research and scholarship,” said Al Sacco, dean of the engineering college, in a written statement from the university. “Our faculty, staff and students are working hard every day to create new knowledge to solve many of today and tomorrow’s challenges. I am pleased to be associated with these outstanding men and women.”
Over the last several years, Texas Tech has worked to expand the university’s funding of its graduate and research programs in an attempt to become a tier-one research university. In Oct. 2013, Chancellor Kent Hance announced his retirement after raising more than a billion dollars for the university system.
“We are very proud of Texas Tech’s placement in the 2015 rankings for graduate schools and programs by the U.S. News & World Report,” Hance said in the Tuesday release. “Our continued improvement in one of higher education’s most recognizable publications signifies the university’s academic progress and will help further enrollment growth at the graduate level.”
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