By Jackie Torok
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University ranks in five programs and eight specialties, with two surging to new heights, according to the latest graduate program ratings by U.S. News & World Report.
The Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics has achieved a tie ranking at No. 63 among all national universities – moving up 31 places from last year. The Deese College broke into the top 100 last year and remains the highest-ranking public historically Black college or university (HBCU) graduate business program in the nation. The only North Carolina universities ranked higher this year are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.
The first business school in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region to earn accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Deese College today is one of fewer than 200 such schools globally to hold that accreditation as well as AACSB’s separate certification for its accounting programs.
Additionally, N.C. A&T’s doctoral program in rehabilitation counseling and counselor education has achieved a tie ranking at No. 46, making it the university’s only non-online top 50 graduate program.
This program is one of the most established programs in the field of professional counseling in North Carolina, beginning as a collaboration between the Department of Psychology and the Counseling Center at A&T circa 1960.
In 2013, the Ph.D. in rehabilitation counseling and rehabilitation counselor education launched as the first doctoral degree in rehabilitation counseling at an HBCU. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs accredited all department programs in 2017.
A&T’s Joint Programs in Social Work with the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, which offers an MSW and Ph.D. in social work, has achieved a tie ranking at No. 72.
A&T’s College of Engineering – which graduates more African American engineers than any other college in the nation – has earned a tie ranking at No. 148, with four programs receiving individual rankings: industrial and systems engineering tied at No. 75; electrical and computer engineering tied at No. 137; mechanical engineering tied at No. 138; and computer science tied at No. 171.
The university achieved a tie ranking at No. 162 for earth sciences, with its program offered through the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, which graduates more diverse students in the agricultural sciences than any other program in the nation and is the largest agricultural college among all HBCUs nationwide.
Two College of Science and Technology programs garnered individual rankings as well, with mathematics tied at 193 and biological sciences at 275.
Now in its ninth consecutive year as America’s largest HBCU, A&T recently unveiled “Preeminence 2030: North Carolina A&T Blueprint” to build on its growth as a doctoral, research university and 1890 land-grant institution. The new strategic plan frames the university’s ambitions through 2030 around five new goals in transformative engagement, leadership and innovation, performance excellence, collaborative and inclusive culture and responsive, impactful scholarship.
