For the first time, UC Merced’s Political Science and Interdisciplinary Humanities (history discipline) graduate groups made national rankings.
US News & World Report’s annual rankings, released today, also highlighted the campus’s growing School of Engineering, as most of its programs climbed the charts.
“UC Merced continues to demonstrate a rapid rise in rankings by U.S. News & World Report, with new programs added to the rankings each year and a growing number identified by experts as among the top 100 programs nationwide,” interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Marjorie Zatz said. “I am especially pleased to see our strength in environmental systems and sustainability recognized in environmental engineering’s rank of 77, and this initial ranking of political science as 63rd in the nation.”
UC Merced’s School of Engineering ranked No. 119, rising 10 places from No. 129 last year.
“We were unranked by the U.S. News & World Report in the 2016 listings and in the 2017 rankings we broke in at 140,” School of Engineering Dean Mark Matsumoto said. “This latest ranking is affirmation of the School of Engineering commitment to excellence and continuing improvement. I am very proud of the hard work and effort of our faculty.”
Several disciplines also grew within the School of Engineering: Environmental Engineering moved from No. 84 to No. 77; Materials Engineering moved from No. 98 to No. 97; Computer Engineering moved from No. 106 to No. 97; Bioengineering moved from No. 117 to No. 114; Mechanical Engineering remained in the top 130 programs, moving from No. 117 to No. 127.
This year’s rankings also included the debut of two of the campus’s graduate programs. Political Science was ranked No. 63 and the history discipline of the Interdisciplinary Humanities program was ranked No.127, in their respective categories.
“Given the youth of our campus, it is impressive how several of our School’s programs have already been recognized and ranked,” School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts Dean and Cognitive Development Professor Jeffrey Gilger said. “Political Science and History are the two most recent, and I expect more to come. These fields are competitive and there are many options nationally. I encourage interested readers to explore how our faculty have created these unique and stand-out programs.”
For 2022, U.S. News evaluated graduate programs across six major disciplines: business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing and specialties within them. The rankings are based on experts’ opinions about program excellence and on statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students.
Other disciplines and specialties in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and other areas are only ranked periodically. Other UC Merced programs ranked periodically include Psychology (No. 90), Chemistry (No. 122), Mathematics (No. 144), Physics (No. 146), and Biology (No. 175).
“These excellent rankings are just one of the many indicators of UC Merced’s meteoric rise as a major research university,” Zatz said.
For a complete list of rankings, click here.
