The College of Engineering, with an overall ranking of No. 10 in the nation, had six of its graduate programs recognized in the top 10 of U.S. News and World Report's 2011 rankings of "America's Best Graduate Schools" and individual disciplines. The report was released April 15.

Within the engineering disciplines, Cornell's biological/agricultural engineering program was ranked No. 4; civil, 10; electrical/electronic/communications, 9; industrial/manufacturing, 8; materials, 8; and mechanical, 8.

Also ranking in the top 10 was Cornell's computer science program, which clocked in at No. 5 overall, with the specialties of theory, programming language and systems rated No. 3, 6 and 10, respectively. The physics program tied for No. 7; Cornell's physics programs in the subfields of condensed matter and in elementary particles and string theory both broke the top 10. Chemistry was ranked at No. 10 in the nation.

In the professional schools this year, Cornell Law School was ranked No. 13, the same as last year. The Johnson School was No. 18, down one notch from the 2010 ranking. And Weill Cornell Medical College was rated No. 16, an improvement from last year's No. 18 slot, in the category for schools of medicine (research). Cornell's Department of Education, part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, maintained its ranking at No. 36 for its graduate degree program.

"This is consistent with our strong showing in past years," said Sunny Power, dean of the graduate school. "We're proud of the fact that many of our programs do very well."

Several graduate programs broke the top 20. Biological sciences ranked No. 11, with the specialty of ecology and evolutionary biology coming in at No. 6. Earth sciences ranked No. 13. Mathematics was also rated No. 13, with the categories of logic and topology rated No. 5 and No. 10, respectively.

Published every spring, the rankings cover schools in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. Results are based on analysis of expert opinions about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students, according to the magazine. The data are culled from surveys of more than 1,200 programs and 12,400 academics and professionals that were conducted in fall 2009.

Rankings of programs in sciences, social sciences, humanities and many other areas are based solely on the ratings of academic experts.

U.S. News ranks only some disciplines every year. Categories in which Cornell has typically had a strong showing, including veterinary medicine, history, psychology, sociology, economics, political science and English, were not ranked this year.