Best Graduate Schools In 2018: What Maryland Schools Made The List?

If you’re considering getting a graduate degree, there’s no doubt you’ve pored over the data to help you choose which school is right for you. The cost of the program, how easy it will be to find a job once you get that degree and the actual prestige of the program likely all factor into your search.

Rankings can go a long way in helping you choose a good graduate school and according to U.S. News & World Report’s new set of rankings, there are plenty of good graduate programs right here in Maryland.

The new rankings look at schools in six disciplines: business, law, engineering, education, medicine and nursing and there’s at least one Maryland school on most of the lists. The rankings are calculated based on factors such as employment rates, starting salaries for graduates and standardized test scores of newly enrolled students. U.S. News explains that because each graduate program is different, the methodology varies across disciplines.

If you want a graduate degree in education, one Maryland school made the top 100:

• University of Maryland—College Park, No. 32

Below are the top schools for getting a degree in education across the country:

• Harvard University (1)
• Stanford University (2)
• University of California-Los Angeles (3)
• University of Pennsylvania (3)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison (3)
• Johns Hopkins University (6)
• Teachers College, Columbia University (7)
• Vanderbilt University (7)
• University of Washington (9)
• Northwestern University (10)
• Arizona State University (11)
• University of Texas-Austin (11)
• New York University (13)
• University of Oregon (14)

If you’re planning on getting an MBA, one Maryland school made the top 100:

• University of Maryland—College Park (Smith) No. 47

Here are some of the top schools to get your MBA:

• Harvard University (1)
• University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business (1)
• The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (3)
• MIT Sloan School of Management (4)
• Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (4)
• Stanford University (4)
• Haas School of Business at The University of California-Berkeley (7)
• Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (8)
• Columbia University (9)
• Yale University (9)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (Ross) (11)
• Duke University (12)
• New York University (12)
• University of Virginia (14)
• University of California-Los Angeles (15)

(Click here to see the full rankings)

If you’re planning on going into law, no Maryland schools made the top 100:

• University of Baltimore tied for No. 112

Below are the top schools for getting a law degree across the country:

• Yale University (1)
• Stanford University (2)
• Harvard University (3)
• University of Chicago (4)
• Columbia University (5)
• New York University (6)
• University of Pennsylvania (7)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (8)
• University of Virginia (8)
• Duke University (10)
• Northwestern University (10)
• University of California-Berkeley (12)

(Click here to see the full rankings)

If you’re planning on getting a degree in engineering, two Maryland schools made the list:

• Johns Hopkins University (19)
• University of Maryland, College Park tied (24)

Below are some of the other top schools for getting an engineering degree across the country:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1)
• Stanford University (2)
• University of California-Berkeley (3)
• California Institute of Technology (4)
• Carnegie Mellon University (5)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (5)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (7)
• Purdue University-West Lafayette (8)
• University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (9)
• University of Texas-Austin (9)
• Texas A&M-College Station (11)
• University of Southern California (11)
• Columbia University (13)
• Cornell University (13)
• University of California-San Diego (13)

(Click here to see the full rankings)

If you’re planning on getting a degree in medicine (research), two schools in Maryland rank among the best:

• Johns Hopkins University No. 3
• University of Maryland tied for No. 40

Here are some of the top schools for medical research across the country:

• Harvard University (1)
• Stanford University (2)
• Johns Hopkins University (3)
• University of California – San Francisco (4)
• University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) (5)
• Columbia University (6)
• Duke University (7)
• Washington University in St. Louis (7)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (9)
• Yale University (9)
• University of California – Los Angeles (Geffen) (11)
• New York University (Langone) (12)
• University of Washington (12)

(Click here to see the full rankings.)

If you’re planning on getting a degree in medicine (primary care), two Maryland schools made the list:

• Johns Hopkins University tied for No. 27
• University of Maryland tied for No. 44

Below are the top schools for getting a degree in primary-care medicine across the country:

• University of Washington (1)
• University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (2)
• University of California – San Francisco (3)
• Oregon Health and Science University (4)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (5)
• University of California – Los Angeles (Geffen) (6)
• University of Minnesota (7)
• Baylor College of Medicine (8)
• University of Colorado (8)
• University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) (8)
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (8)
• University of California – San Diego (12)

(Click here to see the full rankings.)

If you’re planning on getting a degree in nursing (master’s), two Maryland schools made the top 100:

• Johns Hopkins University No. 2
• University of Maryland—Baltimore No. 10

Here are some of the best schools to get a master’s degree in nursing across the country:

• Duke University (1)
• Johns Hopkins University (2)
• University of Pennsylvania (3)
• Emory University (4)
• Ohio State University (5)
• University of Washington (6)
• Yale University (6)
• Columbia University (8)
• University of Pittsburgh (8)
• University of Maryland – Baltimore (10)
• Case Western Reserve University (11)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (11)

(Click here to see the full rankings.)

If you’re interested in getting a doctor of nursing practice degree, three Maryland schools made the list:

• Johns Hopkins University No. 2
• University of Maryland—Baltimore No. 10
• Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences tied for No. 34

These are some of the top schools across the country for doctor of nursing practice degree:

• Duke University (1)
• Johns Hopkins University (2)
• University of Washington (3)
• Rush University (4)
• Columbia University (5)
• Ohio State University (5)
• University of Pittsburgh (7)
• Case Western Reserve University (8)
• Yale University (8)
• University of Maryland – Baltimore (10)
• Vanderbilt University (11)
• New York University (Meyers) (12)
• University of Iowa (13)
• University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (13)

(Click here to see the full rankings.)

U.S. News rankings of programs in business, law, education, medicine, nursing and engineering are based on two types of data: expert opinion and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. The data comes from surveys sent to administrators in close to 2,000 graduate programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 16,500 academics and professionals in the discipline. U.S. News also surveyed professionals who hire new graduates. Statistical indicators fall into two categories: inputs, such as admission test scores, and outputs, such as starting salaries.

The value for each indicator was standardized about its mean and weighted, based on its importance. Final scores were rescaled so the highest ranking institution was given a score of 100 and other scores were calculated as a percentage of that top score and then rounded to the nearest whole number.

Beyond the six disciplines ranked annually, U.S. News periodically ranks programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

• Click here to see which schools rank among the best for graduate programs.

Photo Credit: Johns Hopkins-Admissions/YouTube.