According to the latest graduate program rankings released by U.S. News and World Report, Iowa State’s graduate program in agriculture and biosystems engineering ranked fourth among private and public universities.

David Holger, dean of the Graduate College, said Iowa State’s program ranking did not change dramatically but rather quite slowly.

“It takes several years to change ranking [because] it is based on a specific group of people’s perspectives,” Holger said.

It is the highest ranking in a graduate program at Iowa State so far.

Holger felt honored when he received the news.

“We are being compared with universities who have other great graduate programs,” Holger said.

He also said the program was not only ranked fourth because Iowa State has a highly professional hired staff, but also because the graduate students demonstrate professionalism to the world.

The criteria behind the rankings include being exposed to high qualities of research activity and external activities in professional discipline as well as maintaining a good staff and students.

“I think the students do have a large part to do with the program’s success,” Jeremy Brue, graduate student in biological and agricultural engineering, said. “Everyone takes pride in the work they are doing and want to be a positive influence not only within the department, but also on the outside community as well.”

In order to sustain the ranking, the department desires the best students and staff, acting as a “prerequisite” for the ranking. 

“In order to raise our ranking, we need to essentially get the help of those Ph.D. students with active research,” Holger said.

Brue expressed how important it is to maintain the ranking and also move up in later years.

“The department has a great faculty and staff in place that prepares students for their careers after ISU,” Brue said. “There is a lot of excitement for the new [Biorenewables Complex], as well. That should help to attract more students in the future.”

Martin Gross, another graduate student in biological and agricultural engineering, went into this because of his interest in renewable chemicals and fuels. He wanted to get involved with developing crops and production methods.

Gross was excited with the news of the ranking.

“It means a lot [for the ranking] to come from a well-known university in the field that you are studying,” Gross said. “It means that the facilities and faculty are great, which puts the student in the best position to land a great job after college.”

Some of the other ranked ISU graduate programs that had a higher ranking include industrial manufacturing system engineering, ranked 25th; materials engineering, ranked 29th; aerospace engineering, ranked 26th and chemical engineering and civil engineering tied at 31st in the rankings.