Department No.12 in US News & World Report 2010 Ranking

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been ranked 12th in the US News & World Report’s graduate school rankings with a score of 4.3 on a scale of one to five. California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California at Berkeley share the number one slot, each having a score of five. In the specialty rankings, the department’s Analytical Division ranked five, and the Theoretical Division ranked ten. U.S. News analyzed more than 12,000 graduate programs to prepare this year's rankings.

Robert Morse and Sam Flanigan pf US News and World Report explain the rankings methodology:

Rankings of doctoral programs in the doctoral Ph.D. sciences are based solely on the results of surveys sent to academics in biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, mathematics, physics, and statistics during fall 2009.
The individuals rated the quality of the program at each institution from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Individuals who were unfamiliar with a particular school's programs were asked to select "don't know." The schools with the highest average scores among those who rated them were sorted in descending order and appear here.

The pool of schools surveyed consisted of schools that awarded at least five doctoral degrees for the years from 2003 through 2008, according to the National Science Foundation report "Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards."

Questionnaires were sent to the department heads and directors of graduate studies at each program in each discipline. Response rates for the doctoral Ph.D. sciences were as follows: for biological sciences, 15 percent; chemistry, 25 percent; computer science, 46 percent; earth sciences, 29 percent; mathematics, 34 percent; physics, 31 percent; and statistics, 67 percent.

In the Ph.D. sciences rankings, programs with an average peer assessment score of equal to or greater than 2.0 are numerically ranked. All those with average peer assessment scores of less than 2.0 are listed in alphabetical order as RNP, or rank not published by U.S. News.

Specialty rankings in the Ph.D. sciences are based solely on nominations by department heads and directors of graduate studies at peer schools. These respondents ranked up to 10 programs in each area. Those with the most votes appear here.

For more information about the rankings visit HERE and HERE and HERE .