Old Dominion University's graduate program in counselor education has been ranked as the top program of its type in the nation by a national survey of current and former students, tallied by educational services website graduateprograms.com.
The program, offered by ODU's Darden College of Education, was one of several graduate programs to receive national rankings in the comprehensive survey.
"Graduate Programs recognizes that need and is delighted to announce the second ever Top Graduate Programs in America. It's a comprehensive list of the best graduate programs in the country, based solely on ratings and reviews posted on graduateprograms.com," the company said in a press release.
The list of program rankings was compiled using information submitted by current and recent grad students between Sept. 1, 2012, and April 15, 2014. The rankings encompass reviews posted by more than 60,000 students participating in over 1,500 graduate programs. Ratings are based on a 10-star system (with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best).
Based on those rankings, ODU's counselor education program led the country, with a rating of 9.4 stars out of 10. The master's of public health program, jointly administered by ODU and Eastern Virginia Medical School, was also ranked tops in the country, with a student rating of 8.90 stars.
The criminal justice program at ODU was ranked third in the country by graduateprograms.com, with a student rating of 9.51 stars. ODU's physics graduate program was ranked fifth in the country, with a rating of 8.92 stars.
Other ODU graduate programs to achieve national rankings include ODU's master's of secondary education, ranked 14th (8.37 stars); master's of civil engineering, ranked 25th (7.42 stars); master's of physical therapy, ranked 21st (7.80 stars); and master's of public administration, ranked 24th (7.28 stars).
For a full national ranking of graduate programs in every subject by graduateprograms.com, see: http://www.graduateprograms.com/graduate-school-rankings/.
Graduateprograms.com reaches current and recent graduate students through scholarship entries as well as social media platforms. Graduateprograms.com assigns 15 ranking categories to each graduate program at each graduate school. Rankings cover a variety of student topics, such as academic competitiveness, career support, financial aid and quality of network.
For a given graduate program, rankings are determined by calculating the average score for each program based on the 15 ranking categories. These scores are then compared across all ranked schools for that program and are translated into a final ranking for that graduate program. A given graduate program is not ranked until a minimum threshold of graduate student surveys is completed for that graduate program.
