good phd programs

U.S. News Releases 2024 Best Graduate Programs Rankings

Find the top-ranked graduate schools in business, education, law, nursing and other fields.

U.S. News Ranks Best Graduate Schools

Photo Library

To help prospective graduate students find a school that fits their needs, U.S. News released the 2024 rankings for multiple graduate fields.

Depending on the job or field, earning a graduate degree may lead to higher earnings, career advancement and specialized skill development.

But with several types of degrees and hundreds of graduate schools, it can be difficult to narrow down the options. To help prospective graduate students find a school that fits their needs, U.S. News released its 2024 Best Graduate Schools rankings today. They evaluate business, education, fine arts, health, law, library studies, nursing, public affairs, science, and social sciences and humanities graduate programs. Medical school and engineering rankings are not being released at this time.

A notable methodology change includes a new salary indicator based on profession in the business rankings.

Additionally, for the first time in four years, there are new rankings for a blend of doctoral and master's programs in audiology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy, nurse midwifery and speech-language pathology. Graduate programs in nurse anesthesia and social work are also ranked for the first time since 2016 and 2022, respectively. Those and other specialty rankings are based on reputation ratings from scholars at other surveyed schools.

Read each program's specific methodology for the most detailed explanations of all the changes. The rankings are one source of information among many that prospective college students can use to inform their college decision. Below is a summary of the top-ranked schools in four major graduate program areas:

Best Law Schools

Best business schools, best nursing schools, best education schools.

Among the top 10 law schools . Yale Law School in Connecticut and California-based  Stanford Law School shared the top spot again. The  University of Chicago Law School in Illinois maintained its No. 3 rank, followed by a four-way tie at No. 4: Duke University School of Law in North Carolina, Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law .

Columbia Law School in New York ranked No. 8 again, while there was a three-way tie for No. 9: New York University School of Law , Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law in Illinois and the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor Law School .

Looking beyond the top 10, multiple law schools moved up in the rankings. William & Mary Law School in Virginia, for instance, jumped nine spots from a tie at No. 45 to a five-way tie at No. 36.

U.S. News also ranked 13 law specialties: business/corporate, clinical training, constitutional, contracts/commercial, criminal, dispute resolution, environmental, health care, intellectual property, international, legal writing, tax and trial advocacy. (You can filter by specialty on the  main ranking page .)

Meanwhile, in the  part-time law school rankings – which consists of law schools with at least 20 part-time students enrolled in fall 2022 and fall 2023 – the top three stayed the same. The  Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., is once again at the top while D.C.-based  George Washington University Law School , now No. 3, switched places with the  Fordham University School of Law in New York City, which claimed second place.

Previously ranked at No. 3 and No. 6 respectively, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Stanford Graduate School of Business took the top spot in this year's full-time MBA program rankings . Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business moved down from their previous places in the top two to tie at No. 3.

While the top 10 mostly consists of the same schools as last year, both the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business joined those ranks this year. UC Berkeley rose from a three-way tie at No. 11 to a three-way tie at No. 7, while UVA moved up four spots from No. 14 to a tie at No. 10.

Farther down the full-time MBA rankings, there were some big changes. For example, Pitt's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business soared 39 spots from a tie at No. 86 to a tie at No. 47.

Meanwhile, the very top of the part-time MBA rankings looks similar to last year, with the same schools in the top 5: UChicago, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, NYU's Leonard N. Stern School of Business and the Anderson School of Management at the University of California—Los Angeles. But UChicago took the No. 1 spot from UC Berkeley this year.

Moving up from No. 2, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Maryland tied with Emory University's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Georgia to claim the top spot in this year's nursing master's program rankings. Duke University School of Nursing in North Carolina climbed up by one to claim the third spot.

Johns Hopkins ranked No. 1, as it did last year, in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program rankings. George Mason University School of Nursing in Virginia – which reported more graduates and resources per faculty – soared from a four-way tie at No. 39 to take the No. 2 spot. Duke tied with the University of Washington School of Nursing to round out the top three.

Duke also ranked No. 1 in all of the ranked nursing master's nursing practice specialties, including administration, family, both acute and primary care adult gerontology, and mental health.

Once again, Teachers College, Columbia University in New York was No. 1 in the graduate education schools rankings. This year, however, it tied with the University of Wisconsin—Madison School of Education , which climbed two spots.

The University of Michigan—Ann Arbor's School of Education dropped from the top position to tie with the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies at No. 3. UCLA was previously tied at No. 7.

U.S. News also ranks nine education specialties, with the College of Education at Michigan State University claiming the top spot in the following categories: curriculum and instruction, educational administration, elementary teacher education, higher education administration and secondary teacher education.

Searching for a grad school of education? Access our  complete rankings  of Best Graduate Schools.

44 Graduate Degree Jobs That Can Pay Six-Figure Salaries

Tags: students , graduate schools , medical school , business school , law school , education graduate school , engineering graduate school , MBAs , nursing programs

You May Also Like

Tips for med school applicants' parents.

Kathleen Franco, M.D., M.S. Nov. 26, 2024

Law Applicants and Disciplinary Issues

Gabriel Kuris Nov. 25, 2024

Primary Care vs. Research Med Schools

Anna Fiorino Nov. 21, 2024

Do Law Schools Accept Associate Degrees?

Gabriel Kuris Nov. 18, 2024

Is Law School Worth the Price?

Ilana Kowarski and Cole Claybourn Nov. 12, 2024

Tips for Foreign Law School Applicants

Gabriel Kuris Nov. 12, 2024

Coping With Death as a Future Doctor

Kathleen Franco, M.D., M.S. Nov. 5, 2024

Weighing LSAT Test Prep Options

Gabriel Kuris Nov. 4, 2024

Graduate School with Student Loan Debt

A.R. Cabral Oct. 31, 2024

Finding Scholarships for Grad School

Sarah Wood Oct. 30, 2024