Virginia Tech earns top marks in U.S. News & World Report, QS rankings
Nine of the individual graduate programs in the College of Engineering are rated among the top 25 nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
Virginia Tech received both national and international recognition after earning high marks in the latest rankings release by both U.S. News & World Report and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
U.S. News & World Report is a U.S. media company publishing news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis, while QS is an analyst of higher education headquartered in London.
Virginia Tech’s engineering, veterinary medicine, earth sciences, and part-time MBA graduate programs led the way in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Graduate School rankings released Tuesday. The publication based most of its rankings on peer assessment surveys of deans, program directors, and senior faculty.
The College of Engineering’s graduate programs came in tied for No. 32 overall in the graduate school rankings. In addition, the graduate program in the Department of Computer Science, housed within the College of Engineering, was ranked No. 34.
U.S. News & World Report ranked nine of the College of Engineering individual graduate programs in the top 25 nationally. The list includes:
- Environmental, No. 5
- Civil, No. 8
- Industrial/systems/manufacturing, No. 9
- Biological/agricultural, No. 10
- Aerospace, No. 13
- Computer, No. 19
- Mechanical, No. 20
- Nuclear, No. 21
- Electrical, No. 22
“Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering continues to earn national recognition for the breadth and depth of expertise across our graduate programs, particularly in areas where our faculty and graduate students demonstrate our Ut Prosim motto and drive research with real societal impacts,” interim dean David Knight said. “These rankings reflect the strength of our community committed to advancing solutions in areas critical to our future.
Knight added, “Central to this success is our focus on recruiting and retaining top talent and fostering a culture of transdisciplinary collaboration – both within Virginia Tech and with leading institutions and partners around the world. This approach enables us to tackle complex challenges and deliver meaningful outcomes through graduate education and research."
U.S. News & World Report ranked the university’s veterinary medicine programs at No. 18 nationally – Virginia Tech’s top ranking in the report. The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine includes the following departments: biomedical sciences and pathology, large animal clinical sciences, population health sciences, and small animal clinical sciences.
“Being ranked among the top 20 veterinary medicine programs nationally is a testament to the work our faculty and staff do each day to prepare graduates who are ready to serve on day one,” said Dean M. Daniel Givens. “Our emphasis on one health and our partnerships across the university and region give our students real opportunities to connect directly with underserved communities in Appalachia and beyond.”
The publication also rated the university’s graduate programs in earth sciences, most of which are located in the College of Science and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, at No. 25 nationally.
Virginia Tech’s part-time Evening MBA program, offered by the Pamplin College of Business, was tied for No. 33 nationally, a 19-spot increase from last year.
Engineering graduate programs in computer science and computer engineering and Pamplin's evening MBA and hospitality and tourism management graduate programs are based at Academic Building One in Alexandria. All other Pamplin graduate programs offered online and in the greater Washington, D.C., area are housed there as well.
“We are thrilled that both the Online and Part-time MBA Program offerings made significant gains this year in the U.S. News and World Report Rankings,” Director of MBA Programs Linda Christie said. “This reflects the hard work of our renowned faculty and the accomplished professionals who choose to earn a Virginia Tech MBA.
“This fall, Virginia Tech will begin offering the MBA program in a Flex format, which means students will have the opportunity to choose course by course whether they want to take a class online or in person at our new state-of-the-art Alexandria location. As such, the Flex MBA program combines the best features of our highly ranked Online MBA and Part-time MBA offerings. MBA students also will be able to choose the pace at which they will complete the program. For instance, many students prefer taking two courses per semester, but with the Flex MBA model, students may take one, two or three courses in a given semester. Because the program will not run in a strict cohort model, students may choose to take a semester or summer off for professional or personal reasons. We like to think of the Flex MBA as a program that fits in your life rather than having to fit your life to our MBA program.”
Several graduate programs in the College of Science made the U.S. News & World Report graduate rankings. These include best statistics programs (No. 36), best physics programs (No. 48), best chemistry programs (No. 51), and best mathematics programs (No. 53)
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine earned recognition in the rankings, coming in at No. 44 in the “most graduates practicing in rural areas” category and No. 58 in the “most graduates practicing in medically underserved areas” category.
The School of Education, housed within the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, ranked tied for No. 95 overall. The school earned a top 25 ranking in the “best educational administration programs,” coming in tied for No. 25.
International recognitions
In late March, QS released its 2026 World University Rankings by Subject, analyzing more than 6,200 institutions worldwide and ranking 1,908 across five broad subject areas and 55 narrow subjects. QS used a complex formula that factored in academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per paper, H-index (a researcher’s scholarly output and influence by tallying his/her most-cited works and the corresponding citation count), and International Research Network (a tracking of international research partnerships and resulting co-authored publications).
QS ranked Virginia Tech No. 112 globally in the broad subject area of engineering and technology with an overall score of 73.9. The ranking was a 15-spot improvement in this subject area from last year.
In narrow subject areas, QS placed Virginia Tech in the top 100 globally in seven narrow subjects, including mining engineering (No. 14), electrical engineering (No. 87), agriculture (No. 88), mechanical engineering (No. 96), civil engineering (51-100), hospitality and leisure management (51-100), and veterinary science (51-100). The university’s computer science and information systems programs came in ranked No. 130.
