Making the decision to pursue an advanced degree is not one to be taken lightly. Not only is it a serious financial investment, it's a choice that can affect your future career and pay grade as well. Although the best graduate school for you may depend on a host of factors including your chosen area of study, it's a good idea to be aware of the graduate schools that stand out as the most prestigious. The following schools have made that cut based on the rating and ranking methodology explained at the end of the article.
Explore Online Graduate Degrees
These top, accredited schools offer a variety of online graduate degree programs. Figuring out where to apply? Consider one of these online Master's or PhD programs.
Best Graduate Schools in America
Although there are many ways to evaluate graduate schools, for our list of the best graduate schools, we decided to focus on a number of factors including class size, level of degree awarded, prestige of the faculty, and program rankings. We present the following 50 schools here in descending order according to the number of points awarded. Please note that in some cases, two or more schools received the same ranking. In order to break the tie, we took the school's graduate tuition into consideration and awarded the higher ranking to the more affordable school.
Rating and Ranking Methodology
Faculty/Student RatioLess than 10 to 1 – 2 points
Less than 15 to 1 – 1 point
Presence of Doctoral Program(s) – 2 points
Presence of Master's Program(s)– 1 point
U.S. News & World Report Best Grad School Rankings – 1 point per area of study ranked
Nobel Laureate or Pulitzer Prize Winner Alumni or Faculty – 2 points
1 point awarded per program or feature that "wowed" us
