"U.S. News" Graduate Rankings Put Law, Medicine in Top Tier Date: April 3, 2000 By: Carey Hoffman Phone: (513) 556-1825 Archive: General News The University of Cincinnati's College of Law and College of Medicine continue to be placed among the top colleges in today's release of the U.S. News & World Report rankings of America's best graduate schools. The UC College of Law came in ranked at No. 49, which puts it in the top tier of law schools nationwide. "The quality of our programs is high," said Joseph P. Tomain, dean of the UC College of Law. "While we're happy to be in the first tier, any deviation in the (categorical) numbers they use can have a dramatic effect and, as a small school, we are always going to suffer from reputational rank. But the hard numbers show our entry statistics and our bar passage rates are the highest in the state." The UC College of Law is the fourth-oldest continually operated law school in the country and, with an enrollment capacity of 385, among the smallest public law schools in the nation. In addition to the strengths brought by an excellent faculty, the college is home to four academic centers: the Urban Morgan Center for Human Rights, the Center for Corporate Law, the Center for Electronic Text in the Law and the Glenn M. Weaver Institute for Law and Psychiatry. In the College of Engineering, environmental engineering was ranked 20th. Three programs from the UC Medical Center also were singled out for top-tier recognition in their fields by U.S. News & World Report. UC tied with Ohio State for 40th place among medical schools. For primary care, UC was ranked 42nd. The pediatrics program remained among the nation's elite, with a number five ranking. The College of Nursing ranked 52nd in the country. Among specialty health programs, UC's speech and language pathology program was tied for 30th. Graduate programs from the College-Conservatory of Music were also listed in this year's report, although the figures come from previous ranking surveys. UC ranks 3rd in Opera/Voice, 5th in Conducting, and 6th for Music. The department of geology's doctoral program in paleontology was ranked 9th in last year's survey. Those programs were not re-evaluated this year. The current rankings were published in the April 10 edition of U.S. News & World Report, which hit newsstands April 3rd. They can also be viewed online at http://www.usnews.com.