US News Lists WCU Among Best Graduate Programs for 2023
West Chester University appears on six of the newly released 2023 U.S. News lists
of the best graduate schools in a number of disciplines.
WCU’s master’s of social work (MSW) program is in the top 100 MSW programs nationally among 298 graduate social work programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). WCU is ranked #94 in a tie with 21 other schools. This is the first time in years that U.S. News has published fresh academic reputation rankings for graduate programs in social work.
Among 457 schools of education that the U.S. News researchers surveyed, WCU ranked #188 (a 4-way tie) out of 274 that were ultimately scored. This is the first year the University participated in the U.S. News Graduate School Education survey, although we participate in the U.S. News Online Masters Education survey annually. U.S. News evaluated education schools on research activity, academic excellence of entering students, faculty resources, and opinions on program quality from education school deans and school hiring professionals.
Both of WCU’s graduate nursing programs also ranked highly. The master’s in nursing is ranked at #135 (an 8-way tie) out of 564 schools and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is listed in the #120-158 range out of 343 schools. The Best Nursing Schools rankings assessed both master's programs and DNP programs on their research activity, faculty resources, student excellence, and qualitative ratings from experts.
The University’s public affairs and administration program was ranked highly at #131 (a 13-way tie) from among 270 master’s programs and the master’s in public health is ranked #170 (a 13-way tie).
With so many programs tied in their rankings on each list, the difference between numerical rankings often represents a large leap up or down the lists. For example, where WCU ranked #131 in a 13-way tie for public affairs programs, the rank for schools before #131 is #114 (a 17-way tie) and the number after is #144 (another 13-way tie). U.S. News lists the tied universities alphabetically.
U.S. News’s annual lists of professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing, including specialties in each area, are based on two types of data: expert opinion about program excellence solicited through peer assessment surveys; and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students (inputs or measures of the qualities that students and faculty bring to the educational experience, and outputs or measures of graduates' achievements linked to their degrees).
The U.S. News Best Health Schools rankings, which includes the MSW and graduate public health programs, are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators, or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline.
The data for the rankings in all six disciplines came from statistical surveys of more than 2,150 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 23,200 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2021 and early 2022.
Visit the U.S. News website for more information on WCU’s 2023 graduate school rankings.