Backgrounder

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appears on numerous lists of newly ranked schools, programs and specialty areas produced by U.S. News and World Report magazine for its 2006 edition of "America’s Best Graduate Schools."

"While achieving high rankings is not our primary goal and the system is far from perfect, rankings do represent some measure of perceived quality," said UNC Chancellor James Moeser. "In that regard, I am pleased that Carolina continues to show improvement in the evaluations of our graduate and professional programs."

Following is a summary of newly ranked UNC schools, programs and specialty areas that the magazine plans to post on its Web site and/or use in the weekly magazine and guidebook:

· Primary care, 2^nd
· Research, tied for 23^rd

· Rural medicine, tied for 5^th
· Family medicine, 6^th
· Women’s health, tied for 11^th
· AIDS, tied for 11^th
· Drug/alcohol abuse, tied for 17^th
· Internal medicine, tied for 18^th
· Pediatrics, tied for 20^th

· 3^rd (for Pharm.D. doctoral program)

· Tied for 21^st (for master of business administration degree programs)

· Accounting, 9^th
· Production/Operations, 11^th
· Executive MBA Program, 11^th
· Marketing, tied for 12^th
· Supply chain/logistics, tied for 17^th
· Management, 18^th
· Entrepreneurship, tied for 21^st
· International, tied for 22^nd

· Tied for 27^th

· Listed among the top law schools for racial and ethnic diversity

· Tied for 27^th

Listed among the top education schools for teacher preparation.

· Special education, 16^th
· Elementary education, 20^th
· Administration/supervision, tied for 21^st
· Curriculum/instruction, 23^rd

· Environmental/environmental health, 7^th

(Note: listed under engineering schools by U.S. News. Carolina has no engineering school but is tied for 64^th in new rankings of the nation’s engineering schools.)

· Sociology, tied for 4th
· History, tied for 13^th
· Political science, tied for 13^th
· English, tied for 19^th
· Psychology, tied for 22^nd

· Sociology of population, 4^th
· Social stratification, tied for 4^th
· African-American history, tied for 4^th
· African-American literature, 5^th
· Women’s history, tied for 5^th
· American politics, 9^th
· Social psychology, 9^th
· Developmental psychology, 10^th
· Modern U.S. history, 10^th
· U.S. colonial history, tied for 10^th
· Latin American history, tied for 11^th
· European history, 12^th
· Cultural history, tied for 12^th

New rankings will appear in the April 11 issue of U.S. News and World Report magazine, which hits newsstands Monday (April 4) along with the "America’s Best Graduate Schools" guidebook. Details will be available Friday (April 1) at www.usnews.com U.S. News first ranked graduate programs in 1987 and has done so annually since 1990. Business, education, engineering, law and medicine are ranked annually. Other disciplines and specialties are ranked periodically.

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News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu

U.S. News contact: Richard Folkers, (202) 955-2219, rfolkers@usnews.com