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The University of Michigan continues to be recognized as a top destination for graduate education in the nation, according to the 2025 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools released April 8.

Each year, U.S. News ranks professional school programs in six areas: education, engineering, law, business, medicine and nursing. It also periodically ranks programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, health and other areas. Not all U-M schools and colleges receive a U.S. News & World Report ranking each year.  

MORE INFORMATION

• U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools
• Previous graduate rankings stories

U-M schools and colleges included in the top 15 overall rankings for 2025 are:

• LSA’s sociology program at No. 1, clinical psychology program at No. 2, psychology program at No. 3 and political science program at No. 5​.
• The Marsal Family School of Education at No. 2.   
• The School of Public Health at No. 2. 
• The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at No. 3.  
• The School of Information’s library and information studies program at No. 5.
• The School of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program at No. 6, and its master’s degree program at No. 8.
• The College of Engineering at No. 11.
• The Stephen M. Ross School of Business Master of Accounting Program at No. 4, Executive MBA program at No. 7, the Weekend MBA Program at No. 7 and the Full-time MBA program at No. 13.

UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint also received rankings for their part-time MBA programs, Nos. 126 and 143 respectively.

The rankings are based on expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. 

In addition to the overall program rankings, U-M received rankings in several specialty areas. The specialties that received rankings this year are:

Business (full-time MBA): management (2), accounting (4), project management (3), marketing (3), production operations (4), international (7), non-profit (7), supply chain (8), entrepreneurship (7), executive MBA (7), finance (10), information systems (16) and analytics (24). 

Computer science: artificial intelligence (9), programming language (13), systems (7) and theory (16). UM-Dearborn ranked 174 overall best computer science doctoral program.

Education: higher education administration (2), secondary teacher education (3), education psychology (3), curriculum and instruction (4), elementary teacher education (4), educational administration (8) and education policy (6).

Engineering: nuclear (1), industrial (2), environmental (4), aerospace (5), mechanical (5), civil (5), electrical (6), computer (7), biomedical (8), chemical (8) and materials (8).

Nursing: midwifery (3), Master’s Nurse Practitioner – family (8), Doctor of Nursing Practice – adult gerontology/primary care (6) and Doctor of Nursing Practice – family (9). 

Public affairs/policy: social policy (1), public policy analysis (2), health policy (2), environmental policy (5), global policy (12) and urban policy (12).

Public health: biostatistics (3), health policy and management (4), social behavior (4), epidemiology (5), environmental health science (6) and healthcare management (7).

In addition to the rankings noted above, UM-Flint ranked No. 151 in occupational therapy, No. 105 in physical therapy and No. 80 in nursing anesthesia. U-M’s law and medical schools no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report graduate rankings, however, both schools remain ranked by U.S. News in the 2025 edition.

Since new rankings for 2025 were not released for all programs, the following retain their rankings from prior years:

• The School of Social Work ranked No. 1.
• The College of Pharmacy ranked No. 2.
• Science Doctoral Programs:
  • Chemistry ranked No. 14 overall.
  • Earth Sciences ranked No. 9 overall.
  • Mathematics ranked No. 11 overall.
  • Physics ranked No. 13 overall.

Applications to the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus have hit a record high with more than 115,000 prospective first-year and transfer students looking to enroll for the fall 2025 term.

Application volume for prospective first-year students increased in all categories: in-state, out-of-state and international. There were nearly 109,000 applications, an almost 11% increase over 2024. First-year applications have increased 36% over the past five years. 

“The continued and growing interest from prospective students demonstrates the clear value of the University of Michigan experience from those within our state, across the nation and around the globe,” said Adele C. Brumfield, vice provost for enrollment management.

“As a public university committed to access and affordability, we are pleased to see a significant increase in applications from first-generation students and students from low-income backgrounds, as well as continued growth from our Michigan residents in both first-year and transfer applications.”

Several categories recorded increases in prospective first-year student applications:

• First-generation students (24.5%)
• In-state (0.5%)
• Out-of-state domestic (11%)
• International students (18%)
• Students from self-reported low-income backgrounds (12%)
• Students of color increased by 14%. The largest year-to-year increase within an identity group occurred in students identifying as Black or African American (17%), followed by Hispanic or Latine​ (15%), and Native American (13%) and Asian (13%).

While applications from transfer students have increased nearly 25% in the last five years, fall 2025 applications dipped slightly overall to 6,157, a 2% decrease compared with 6,297 the previous year. Despite the decrease, transfer applications increased in several categories:

• In-state (6%)
• First-generation (7%)
• Students from self-reported low-income backgrounds (7%)
• Students of color (11%)

Decisions were released in January for first-year students who applied by the early action application deadline. The regular decision application deadline was Feb. 1, and final admissions decisions will be released by early April. Students offered admission to U-M in Ann Arbor have until May 1 to accept, which is the national undergraduate reply date.

“We continue to encourage students from different backgrounds and life experiences to consider the University of Michigan as their best choice for pursuing their dreams,” said Erica L. Sanders, assistant vice provost and executive director of undergraduate admissions.

“Throughout the recruitment process, we encourage prospective students to visit campus and engage with our community in ways that help them see that they belong at the university.”

Using data available in the CSS Profile — an online application used by colleges and scholarship programs to award non-federal institutional aid — and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the Office of Financial Aid strives to provide prospective students with financial aid packages within two weeks of their acceptance letter.

“Through additional outreach efforts there has been an increase of 52% in the number of prospective students that have completed the CSS Profile, compared with this time last year,” said Tammie L. Durham Luis, assistant vice provost of enrollment management and executive director of financial aid.

“This enables us to provide students a clear picture of the financial support available to them at U-M when making their college choice.”

U-M offers a number of financial aid options including scholarships and grants, loans and federal work-study. In addition, U-M recently expanded eligibility for its Go Blue Guarantee, which provides a tuition-free education to incoming and returning full-time, in-state students whose families have annual incomes up to $125,000 and assets up to $125,000, beginning in the fall of 2025.

The Office of Enrollment Management team and campus partners have begun conducting programs for admitted students on-campus, throughout the state of Michigan and in key areas around the country, with the goal of showcasing the U-M experience and aiding students as they finalize their college choice. These programs will continue throughout the next two months with the largest in-person event series, Campus Day, running through April.

The fall term begins Aug. 25 on the Ann Arbor campus. Detailed fall 2025 enrollment numbers will be released in October.

New solar installations distributed across the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses will have a total capacity of 25 megawatts of renewable electricity after a three-year installation process is complete.

The electricity generated — enough to power about 3,000 homes — will feed directly into U-M buildings rather than going back into the regional power grid and will work toward the university’s goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from purchased electricity, known as Scope 2 emissions.

The installations also will contribute to the energy resilience and climate action goals of the city of Ann Arbor.

Along with new off-site, Michigan-based renewable-power purchase agreements, the installations will allow the university to achieve its Scope 2 emissions goal within an estimated two years.

The solar installations will be constructed in phases. Initial locations will be on the tops of existing parking areas and large rooftops, where installations will cause minimal disruption. Other locations will be assessed over time.

The first installation phase will begin in 2025 with facilities services buildings on the perimeter of the Ann Arbor campus before moving to higher-use campus locations. By the end of that year, the university expects to have more than 10 megawatts of power online in Ann Arbor.

The full project will span three years, with installations at UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint in later phases.

The project demonstrates one part of the university’s broad commitment to carbon neutrality and modernizing its energy infrastructure with resilient technologies that better serve communities, said Shana Weber, associate vice president for campus sustainability.

“In addition to moving the university closer to demonstrating repeatable and scalable approaches to climate action, we seek to deepen an immersive educational and research experience that advances innovation and builds high-impact partnerships,” Weber said.

She described the overarching approach as one that strives to cultivate the campus and community as a living learning lab across all climate action initiatives.

The solar installations are part of the university’s Campus Plan 2050, which was released Sept. 30 and guides comprehensive campus development for the next 25 years. The effort also reflects the commitment of the university’s Vision 2034 “Climate Action, Sustainability and Environmental Justice” impact area. 

“Sourcing our electricity from Michigan-based renewable sources is only one piece of the solution,” said Kim Kiernan, co-interim associate vice president for facilities and operations. “By connecting to the larger campus plan, and to the pillars of the university’s Vision 2034, physical systems will work together with programmatic goals to advance exciting initiatives.”

“When combined with other investments in building electrification, including geo-exchange and heat pump systems for heating and cooling, sustainable building methods, transit infrastructure improvements and more, we move closer to realizing a resilient, innovative, livable community that is a go-to leader in responsiveness to global needs,” Weber said.

The university says the upfront investments in making this transition will provide long-term benefits, including improved energy resilience, reduced financial risk due to volatile fuel markets, reputational leadership, educational and research opportunities, and reduced operating costs.