SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENTS MAKE GAINS IN NATIONAL RANKINGS
In April, U.S. News and World Report released its latest rankings of graduate programs. Liberal Arts made significant improvements in almost every area ranked.
U.S. News rates only seven liberal arts disciplines, and subfields within these disciplines. By those rankings we now have five core departments—English, sociology (crime, law, and justice), psychology, economics, and political science—with part or all of their programs ranked in the top twenty nationally among public universities. Communication Arts and Sciences has also been ranked by its national professional association, with five of its concentrations in the top five nationally.
More details can be found in the U.S. News issue as well as on the magazine's Web site, if you are a subscriber. But the figures are as follows, with the first number our ranking among public universities, and the second being our ranking overall, in the list including private schools as well:
Population sociology 5 (5)
International relations 6 (17) (IR is a large part of political science)
Crime, Law, and Justice 7 (7)
Sociology 8 (17)
African American literature 9 (17)
Economics 10 (28)
English 14 (28)
Political science 17 (35)
Psychology 20 (37)
As these rankings imply, we still have work to do in order to achieve our goal of making Liberal Arts at Penn State one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges among public universities. But the rankings also suggest widespread improvement in critical areas of the College.
Not coincidentally, the areas that have made these gains are also those areas for which many alumni and friends provided support over the last decade, particularly during the last fundraising campaign. Endowments and other gifts have helped us to recruit and retain strong faculty, to support more of our talented students, and to enhance the research and educational opportunities for all of our constituents. For that reason, it is a pleasure to note not only the improvement in the College's reputation nationally, but the critical role alumni support has played in our improvement.