The Deans' Choices

Few things stir college-level academics more than debating the relative merits of their professional schools. Now they will have even more to argue about. Change, a magazine that reports on higher education, this month published ratings based on an extensive poll of deans at all 1,181 accredited professional schools around the nation (see box). The deans, representing schools specializing in 18 different fields of study, *were asked just one question: "What in your opinion are the top five schools in your profession?"

Harvard dominated the ratings. Four of its schools--Business, Law, Medicine and Theology--led the ratings in their fields; three others--Architecture, Education and Public Health --were ranked among the top five. The universities of Chicago, Michigan and California at Berkeley each boasted six schools that were ranked among the top five. Columbia had five; Stanford, Ohio State and Illinois each rated four. Yale, however, had only three.

The poll also turned up some surprising omissions. Harvard's dental school did not make the list. Nor did the University of Michigan's prestigious medical school. Syracuse University's journalism school, long considered one of the best, was conspicuously absent.

The results will no doubt bring a storm of angry calls and letters to the pair who conducted the poll: Professor Peter Blau and a graduate student, Rebecca Margulies, both of Columbia University's sociology department. When they published a more limited poll last year in Change, they were bombarded by protests from irate academics, who questioned their techniques and even their sanity.

-Architecture, business, dentistry, education, engineering, forestry, journalism, law, library science, medicine, music, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, public health, social work, theology and veterinary medicine.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.