Columbian College’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration (TSPPPA) increased its overall standing for best public affairs school in the country. In the 2023 U.S. News & World Report’ s ranking of the nation’s top graduate programs, the school ranked 12th—up from the 19th slot last year—and nine of its specialty areas were in the top 2 percent to 7 percent of ranked schools. The greatest rise in ranking was for “Urban Policy,” which rose from number 28 to number 18, making it into the top 7 percent of schools with the best reputation in this field.
“Our faculty, staff and alumni volunteers are committed to helping our students distinguish themselves in their education and careers,” said Mary Tschirhart, TSPPPA director and the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Professor in Public Service. “Public affairs schools share a responsibility to advance the public good, and we are proud of this recognition by our peer institutions regarding our stature among them.”
In addition to being number 12 overall in best public affairs schools, the specialty ranks for TSPPPA are:
- International Global Policy & Administration: 6th
- Homeland Security & Emergency Management: 7th
- Public Management & Leadership: 8th
- Health Policy & Management: 9th
- Public Finance and Budgeting: 11th
- Public Policy Analysis: 17th
- Nonprofit Management: 18th
- Urban Policy: 18th
- Social Policy: 20th
The Best Graduate Schools rankings by U.S. News vary in methodology and use one or both of two types of data: expert opinion about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. To gather the peer assessment data, U.S. News asked deans, program directors and senior faculty from across the country to judge the academic quality of programs in their field.
Other Columbian College disciplines that were ranked in the top 100 category of graduate programs were the following:
- Political Science: 37th (International Politics: 26th)
- Statistics: 41th
- Overall Economics: 61st
- History: 63rd
- English: 73rd
- Biology: 88th
- Psychology: 88th
- Mathematics: 91st
- Physics: 95th
- Chemistry: 100th