DE Assistant Politics Editor

Officials of two SIU graduate schools that ranked in U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools issue, say the programs will probably not experience an enrollment increase, despite the positive publicity.

But an official from a third school that was ranked by the publication says he is hopeful the publicity may bring more students to his program.

Advertisement

SIU’s Law School, Medical School and the Radio/TV graduate school all received rankings in the March 18 issue of U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools issue. The SIU Medical School was ranked 7th out of 15 primary-care schools. The Radio/TV graduate school ranked 13th of 15, and the SIU Law School received ranking in the fourth tier.

Carl Getto, dean of the SIU School of Medicine, said the school was not having any difficulty with enrollment.

Right now we have over 2,000 applicants for 72 places, Getto said. I would like to think the ranking would make people more interested in us. It won’t have any practical effect on enrollment.

Getto said he was pleased the school received ranking and hopes the program will continue to improve.

We are continuing to hold to the primary-care model and encourage students to go into primary care, he said. We hope the program continues to attract this level of attention while we are continuing to improve next year.

Getto said primary care refers to ongoing care of patients of all ages and includes physicians who practice internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology and family medicine.

Tom Britton, acting dean of the SIU School of Law, said the school was not facing any problems with enrollment and that the rankings would not help the school gain enrollment.

Advertisement*

Britton said although the rankings were an accomplishment to be proud of, they did not show the actual quality of the school.

We’re very pleased we did well among small law schools, Britton said. We’re also pleased the data reported was accurate. However, these kinds of rankings tend to be over estimated in terms of importance. We’re proud of what the school does, and that is not reflected in the rankings. I think the rankings cause a lot more questions than answers.

We don’t do things just to improve the rankings. We continue to be as good as we can be and offer a quality education to students.

Ken Keller, associate chair of the Radio/TV Department, said he thought the rankings could help the program’s enrollment.

We are seeing an increase in the undergraduate and graduate enrollment already, Keller said. I think the national publicity can only help. The article particularly pertained to the graduate program, but I think being listed is going to help us overall. I think if we keep the national program qualities and keep up with technology improvements, we’re going to continue to prosper or at least I hope.

John Haller, vice president for Academic Affairs, said the administration was happy with the three schools’ rankings.

We are delighted with the recognition, Haller said. It puts us with the leading institutions in the country.