Florida Atlantic University’s graduate nursing program slipped a few places but was still ranked No. 60 in the nation, according to graduate school program rankings released by U.S. News and World Report.
The news organization ranked graduate programs using a variety of factors, including research excellence and the career success of a program’s graduates.
Universities tend to have a love-hate relationship with rankings, lauding them when their school or one of its programs is ranked high but saying little or nothing about them when that’s not the case. Some parents and students find the rankings useful as a way to compare education options.
Which universities got top rankings for graduate programs in the US?
The nation’s most famous institutions of higher education — schools like Yale, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Stanford University, Emory University, Vanderbilt University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — tend to dominate the rankings, and that was the case again this year.
U.S. News and World Report ranked Stanford No. 1 for its business graduate program, followed by Penn and the University of Chicago. In engineering, MIT was first, followed by Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley. Among law schools, Stanford was again No. 1, with the University of Chicago and Yale tied for second.
How did Palm Beach County colleges and universities rank?
In nursing, Emory was ranked No. 1, followed by Johns Hopkins University with Duke and Ohio State University tied for third.
FAU, No. 57 in the nursing school rankings in 2025, was tied for 60th this year with the University of New Hampshire and UNC-Greensboro. U.S. News and World Report ranked 147 graduate nursing programs across the country.
FAU’s No. 60 ranking for its graduate nursing program was the highest ranking of any college or university in Palm Beach County.
Lynn University’s graduate education program was No. 208 among the 263 graduate nursing programs assessed by the news organization.
Vanderbilt in Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County’s colleges and universities could have more to crow about in the future, given Vanderbilt’s plans to build a graduate campus in West Palm Beach. That program is expected to focus on business, technology and computing.
Vanderbilt’s graduate business program was ranked No. 16, and its graduate engineering program was tied with Yale for 39th.
The University of Florida’s graduate programs were most often the highest ranked in the state. It’s graduate education program was tied for No. 2 in the nation with Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. All of them were ranked one spot below the University of Wisconsis-Madison.
Vanderbilt’s graduate education program was ranked No. 5.
Florida’s graduate programs were tops in the state in business (tied with the University of Miami at No. 39 nationally), education (tied for No. 2 nationally) and engineering (No. 46 nationally). Its medical school was among the top tier along with the medical schools other highly-regarded universities like Vanderbilt, Emory and Yale.
The University of South Florida also has a Tier 1 medical school, according to the U.S. News rankings. The University of Miami’s medical school is a Tier 2 program, with the medical schools at Florida Atlantic, Florida International University, Florida State University and the University of Central Florida also listed in that tier. The medical school of Davie’s Nova Southeastern University is a Tier 4 program, according to the news organization’s rankings.
FIU was ranked in the 123-134 grouping in business, No. 84 in education, No. 97 in engineering, No. 77 in law, and its graduate nursing program was ranked No. 54.
FAU was No. 95 in education, No. 142 in engineering and No. 60 in nursing.
The University of Miami was No. 39 in business, No. 125 in engineering, No. 70 in law and No. 26 in nursing.
Other notable rankings in the Sunshine State was No. 89 ranking of the joint Florida State-Florida A&M University engineering program, the University of Central Florida’s No. 41 ranking in education, followed six spots lower by USF.
The law schools at UF and FSU were tied with the law schools at the University of California-Irvine, William and Mary and Washington and Lee at No. 34.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education and Riviera Beach development for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: How Florida’s graduate schools fared in U.S. News’ national rankings
Reporting by Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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