Students and faculty agreed that professors at Mary Lou Fulton School of Education make the college stand out.
And now, U.S. News and World Report have ranked the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education No. 14 among public graduate schools of education and No. 24 among public and private graduate schools in its latest edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”
“We are extraordinarily pleased to know that our colleagues across the country at other very prestigious institutions consider the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education to be one of the absolute top-tier colleges of education in the country,” said George Hynd, dean of the college. “Also, this is the highest ranking of any college at ASU.”
Last year, the school ranked No. 16 among public schools and No. 25 among both public and private schools.
Hynd said the rankings, released April 23, are important in recruiting faculty and students to the program.
“We’ve been able to attract some of the best faculty in the country, and that has a tremendous impact on the quality of our graduate programs,” Hynd said.
Gene Glass, regents’ professor at the college, agreed that he was proud of the overall rankings, though especially pleased with the rankings of the special programs.
“The overall ranking takes reputation and folds in things like GRE [graduate record examination] scores, acceptance rates and number of faculty per number of students,” Glass said. “But the special program rankings are purely a rating of reputation.”
He said because ASU is a large school and the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education enrolls many students, some numbers that go into overall rankings may misconstrue the ranking compared to schools with smaller programs.
“The overall composite [ranking] mixes the apples and oranges and throws everything into one big bin.” Glass said. “That’s why when we get these reports from U.S. News we immediately [see] how our special programs rank.”
Six out of nine specialty programs at the Fulton College were ranked in the top 15 among public graduate schools nationwide and a seventh program was ranked in the top 25, accomplishments which are significant, Glass said.
A curriculum and instruction graduate student at the college, Sissy Wong Kavas, said though she is proud to attend a college with a high ranking, there is keep “much” more than a ranking that makes the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education special.
“I think that it’s really great that [the school] is being nationally recognized, but I’ve always felt that it is one of the best programs that exists in our country today,” said Wong Kavas.
She said her adviser, fellow students and network of professors in the program make her experience worthwhile.
“I know I can go to any professor, whether I had them or not, and ask them for advice and expertise,” she said. “And I just feel like having that network available to me is invaluable.”
Larisa Warhol, an education policy studies graduate student, said that talented faculty was her deciding factor in attending ASU. Studying language policy and American-Indian education policy, she said she thinks the program at ASU best fits her needs.
“Some of my colleagues and I have discussed the fact that if you are interested in doing language policy, there’s nowhere else to go but ASU [because of the strong faculty],” Warhol said. “The faculty here is fabulous. They want to work with students.”
Reach the reporter at abigail.gilmore@asu.edu.
