Graduate programs ranked in U.S. News 2017 Best Graduate School Rankings

Baylor graduate programs in law, business, nursing and health disciplines, education, engineering, the sciences and social sciences and humanities were among those nationally ranked in the 2017 U.S. News Best Graduate Schools rankings released in March.

Each year, U.S. News ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law, nursing and medicine, as well as various specialty areas within those fields. However, other graduate programs and specialty areas aren't ranked on a consistent timeline.

Baylor Law School moved up one place to No. 55 overall in the magazine's Top Schools listing for 2017. In the law specialties rankings, Baylor's trial advocacy program is ranked No. 4 in the nation.

Baylor's Hankamer School of Business, which moved into its new Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation in fall 2015, moved up one place to No. 57 among the top-rated master's programs in business. Among specialty rankings, Baylor's online MBA program, which began in May 2014, was ranked No. 69, based on factors such as admissions selectivity, reputation for excellence among peer institutions and academic and career support services offered to students.

The Master of Science in Nursing program at Baylor's Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) in Dallas moved up 14 places to No. 58 in the 2017 U.S. News graduate rankings, while the Doctor of Nursing Practice program improved 27 places to No. 45. In addition, LHSON's nursing-midwifery program was ranked No. 10 nationally under the U.S. News health disciplines category. [Note: Although not newly ranked, LHSON's online master's degree program in nursing was ranked No. 79 in last year's U.S. News graduate program rankings.]

Baylor School of Education advanced to No. 78 in the 2017 U.S. News graduate program rankings, up five places from last year.

In the U.S. News graduate rankings of engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees, Baylor School of Engineering and Computer Science and its graduate engineering program debuted at No. 118. In the engineering specialty rankings, Baylor graduate engineering programs also were ranked, with electrical engineering at No. 109 and mechanical engineering at No. 124.

U.S. News newly ranked a number of health disciplines with several Baylor graduate programs in the health disciplines moving up from the last rankings in 2012, including:

• the graduate programs in Baylor's Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, which moved up to No. 53 from its last ranking of No. 60 in 2012 Clinical psychology (PsyD) in Baylor College of Arts and Sciences at No. 62, up from No. 79 in 2012
• Speech-language pathology in Baylor's Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences moved up to No. 69 from No. 79 in 2012
• A March 16 news release at baylor.edu/mediacommunications summarizes survey information and recaps existing rankings for other Baylor graduate programs, including several U.S. Army-Baylor programs, sciences and social sciences.

For more information about Best Graduate Schools, visit usnews.com/grad. To learn more about the methodology and data research, visit usnews.com/gradmeth.