On March 12, U.S. News & World Report, on their site referred to as “the global authority in education rankings,” released their 2020 rankings for Graduate and Professional Schools across the United States.

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School remained 9th for social work programs across the country.

“The school has been a leader in social work education for over 100 years. The ranking is a testament to the consistently high quality of our degree program, the scholarship of the faculty, and the excellent work done by our alumni across the nation,” said Grover C. Gilmore, the dean of the Mandel School. He cited a social work minor and study abroad courses that opened up opportunities for undergraduates to work with the faculty.

The medical school was ranked as the 24th best research medical school nationwide. Previously, they had been ranked at 25th for the past three years.

“This honor further confirms our school as innovators in medical education, leaders in life-saving biomedical research and a force for improving health in our community,” said Dean Pamela B. Davis of the medical school. When discussing the upcoming shifts in the medical school, Davis stated, “This spring, as our university program moves into the Health Education Campus together with our Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine program and Case Western Reserve’s nursing and dental schools, we will be in an even better position to extend our national leadership in interprofessional education.”

Dean Venkataramanan Balakrishnan of the Case School of Engineering, which dropped from 50th to 52nd this year, said, “It’s important to note that while our ranking did slip a few spots—which is certainly disappointing—our overall score actually went up. And our peer-assessment score—which reflects our reputation among other top engineering schools—also increased. The U.S. News methodology is complex, and while the end result this year was not what we’d hoped for, the increases in these areas are encouraging. We have several initiatives in the works to enhance our research enterprise and we are optimistic that this will help boost our rankings in the next few years.”

The law school fell six spots from last year, placing them at 71st. Breaking down how U.S. News and World Report ranks the schools, the co-deans of the law school, Jessica Berg and Michael Scharf pointed out that the ranking was unclear and inconsistent. First, there was no school ranked at 65th this year, the School of Law’s previous rank, but rather a group ranked at 67th and then another group ranked at 71st.

The deans said, “Our movement seems to be the result of a couple of schools moving up in the rankings and shifting things around us.” Second, they pointed out that the Bar exam pass rate had improved from last year, they had improved their employment rate and their median LSAT and GPA had stayed consistent with last year.

Finally, they suggested that prospective students read a diverse set of magazines that ranked law schools. For example, PreLaw Magazine, which ranks individual specialties within law schools gave the law school an A+ in Health Law, an A+ in International Law, an A+ in IP Law, an A in Business Law, and an A- in Public Interest Law. These rankings are based on the objective criteria including number of courses, number of professors, number of clinics, concentrations, moot court success, having a journal and hosting programs in each specialty area.

Weatherhead School of Management rose eight spots since last year, placing them at 22nd this year. However the full-time Master of Business Administration degree was 77th in 2018, 55th in 2019 and is ranked at 74th in 2020.

The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing has two programs that are ranked: the Masters and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees. They stand at 16th and 13th, respectively, this year.