U.S.News & World Report has ranked Rensselaer’s electronic arts MFA program eighth in the specialty category of Multimedia/Visual Communications. The ranking appears in the annual guidebook, “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” Rensselaer tied with the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, California).

"Rensselaer's arts program is deservedly gaining recognition for its rigorous and groundbreaking work," said Michael Century, chair of Rensselaer's arts department. “The vision and hard work of the MFA program's founders has clearly paid off. We're now poised to rise even further up the ranks, as we expand the research enterprise – a doctoral degree is in planning now – and sharpen the undergraduate electronic arts offerings.”

"Rensselaer's arts program is deservedly gaining recognition for its rigorous and groundbreaking work. The vision and hard work of the MFA program's founders has clearly paid off. We're now poised to rise even further up the ranks, as we expand the research enterprise – a doctoral degree is in planning now – and sharpen the undergraduate electronic arts offerings.” —Michael Century—

Other top 10 schools include: California Institute of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, UCLA, New York’s School of Visual Arts, New York University, and Rhode Island School of Design.

Rensselaer’s unique MFA program in electronic arts was established in 1991. A number of Rensselaer student artists have gained national prominence, including Colleen Mulrenan, whose video work titled “Daughter, September 13” was presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art and is now in its permanent collection. Mulrenan’s work was featured in The New York Times and in the December 2002 issue of Rensselaer.

U.S. News republished the 2002 rankings for applied math, which listed Rensselaer at 21st in the country. Rensselaer’s program tied with Harvard, Rutgers, SUNY-Stony Brook, the University of Arizona, and the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The graduate school of engineering moved to 33rd this year, down from a rank of 31 in 2002. The number of Ph.D.s granted increased by 24 percent this year. The Institute granted 83, up from 67 advanced degrees awarded in 2002.

U.S. News surveyed 185 engineering schools that grant doctoral degrees and computed scores for each institution based on several weighted factors. The rankings appear in the 2004 issue of the magazine, which hit newsstands on April 7. Many of the rankings will also appear in the April 14th edition of U.S. News & World Report, the weekly newsmagazine.