Published: March 29, 2000

Six graduate programs at the University of Colorado at Boulder were cited for excellence in a limited number of disciplines ranked by U.S. News and World Report magazine in March 2000.

In specialty programs, CU’s Program of Environmental Law was ranked in a tie for 5th place with Tulane University, up from 7th in 1999. Overall, CU’s Law School was ranked 45th in the nation out of 179 law schools, the same as its 1999 ranking by U.S. News and World Report.

CU-Boulder’s Master’s of Music Program was ranked 20th in the nation in the 2000 rankings, tied with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rice University and Mannes College of Music in New York City. CU-Boulder also was tied for 20th in Music in 1997, the last time music graduate programs were ranked by U.S. News.

CU-Boulder’s Speech, Language and Pathology master’s program tied for 21st in the nation with Pennsylvania State University, Boston University, the University of Connecticut and Emerson College in Massachusetts in 2000.

CU-Boulder’s School of Education was ranked in a tie for 27th place with the University of Washington in 2000. That ranking was up from 29th in 1999.

CU-Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science was ranked 30th in 2000 by U.S. News, up from 33rd in the 1999 U.S. News ranking.

"Given our relatively small graduate school student population, we are pleased to be recognized for our excellence," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny. The graduate student enrollment is less than 20 percent of the total student population of nearly 26,000 students at CU-Boulder.

The rankings were based on reputation, student selectivity, faculty resources and research activity, according to U.S. News and World Report.

A number of graduate disciplines not ranked by U.S. News in 2000 that CU-Boulder has fared in the top 25 in the past include chemistry, physics, psychology, biology and advertising programs.

CU’s Health Sciences Center in Denver also fared well in the 2000 U.S. News rankings for such disciplines as a master’s/doctorate in community health (1) and masters in nursing (10). HSC also was cited for specialty rankings in family nurse practitioner (3), pediatric nurse practitioner (3), community and public health (4), adult nurse practitioner (8), physician assistant (8) and master’s in nursing (10).