MSU has dethroned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, for the top spot in nuclear physics graduate studies, according to nationwide rankings of graduate schools released Thursday by U.S. News & World Report.
The program previously was ranked second after MIT and was one of six total rankings for programs in the MSU College of Natural Science.
Additionally, four graduate programs — elementary and secondary education, rehabilitation counseling and industrial and organizational psychology — claimed No. 1 spots in the 2011 report on America’s Best Graduate Schools.
About 38 MSU graduate programs claimed various spots in the report, and six of the 11 colleges included received national rankings. Colleges not assigned a ranking as a whole were evaluated on a departmental basis.
Rankings for science, social science and humanities programs were based on academic experts’ ratings, according to U.S. News’ Web site. Rankings for business, education, engineering, law and medicine were ranked using experts’ opinions and statistical data measuring both the quality of education and post-graduation success.
A long history of investing in nuclear physics, continual research conducted at the Cyclotron and the forthcoming $550 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, helped hoist MSU to the No. 1 spot, said Wolfgang Bauer, chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
MSU had hoped to claim the top nuclear physics position several years ago, and Thursday’s report is welcome but expected news, Bauer said.
“We were hoping it would be (No. 1), to be honest,” Bauer said.
“I don’t want to call it a popularity contest, but people around the country in academia are ranking what their opinion is of the best program. They don’t use quantitative data. If they did, we’d already have been No. 1.”
Michael Thoennessen, associate director of education at the Cyclotron, said MSU’s claiming the top nuclear physics spot is validation of years of hard work.
“It’s really long-deserved,” Thoennessen said.
“It takes a long time before the whole community realizes these guys really are better than MIT. We really are on the cutting edge of research in nuclear physics.”
The College of Education claimed three No. 1 spots in the report.
The elementary and secondary education programs took the top spot in their respective categories, positions they have held for 16 years.
The college’s rehabilitation counseling program also ranked first. Ten graduate programs in the college placed in various categories, and the college itself ranked 17th overall.
“They really reflect the reputation of the faculty and the achievements of the graduates we put out,” said Robert Floden, the college’s associate dean for research.
“We get great students and when they go out and get jobs in higher education or wherever they go, they … bring distinction to Michigan State.”
The fifth No. 1 ranking went to the industrial and organizational psychology program in the College of Social Science.
The overall rankings are indicative of graduate programs at the university improving in a number of areas, whether the programs ultimately were ranked by U.S. News, Graduate School Dean Karen Klomparens said in an e-mail.
“The excellent faculty, including those hired at MSU in the last 10-12 years, are key to making a big difference in the quality of the program,” Klomparens said in the e-mail.
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“Students can impact rankings because they publish papers, present their research at meetings and these make MSU graduate programs more visible.”
Stefan Fletcher, president of MSU’s Council of Graduate Students, said the sheer number of programs that received rankings and the five No. 1 spots show the quality of graduate students and programs at the university.
“It’s definitely a very, very positive indicator that Michigan State, despite tough economic circumstances, the quality of our graduate and professional programs only continue to grow and get international acclaim,” Fletcher said.
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