Feb. 20, 1998 Contact Maureen Shine (541) 346-3145 Editor's Note: This is a more complete listing of the rankings of University of Oregon graduate programs than was sent earlier. EUGENE--University of Oregon graduate programs are among the best in the country in architecture, business, education, law and psychology, according to U.S. News & World Report. The magazine's annual Best Graduate Schools edition will appear on newsstands on Friday, Feb. 20. For the second year in a row, the report lists the UO College of Education's graduate program in special education as fourth best in the nation. The college's overall graduate program is listed among the nation's top 50, ranked at 37. The UO Department of Architecture graduate program was ranked 15th in the country. The UO's graduate program, one of 100 such programs in the country, offers the only professionally accredited architecture graduate degree program in the state of Oregon. The UO clinical psychology program was ranked 17th in the nation. The UO psychology department's overall Ph.D. program ranked at 26. The entrepreneurship program at the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business ranked 21st in the nation. The UO Environmental Law program ranked ninth and the over-all graduate program at the law school was in the second tier--the group just below the top 50. The survey considers student selectivity, placement success, faculty resources and separate measures of institutional reputation. The rankings, however, are being challenged by the majority of U.S. law schools, including the University of Oregon School of Law. At a news conference in New York City on Wednesday, Feb. 18, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) called upon the magazine to stop publishing its annual ranking of law schools, saying its survey and others like it can be harmful to law school applicants. The AALS released a recently completed independent study which found "many serious problems" with the way U.S. News & World Report evaluates law schools. "The U.S. News ranking system is seriously flawed. It relies heavily upon the single LSAT score of the admitted applicants," said UO law dean Rennard Strickland. "There is no single best law school because each applicant has a personal set of needs and wants from legal education. The U.S News rankings are a `one size fits all' system which fails to identify the particular requirements of individual students." More than two decades ago, Strickland wrote in his best-selling book, "How To Get Into Law School," that there "are many factors to be considered in the selection of a law school. This is a very personal choice. The applicant's "own drives, interests and abilities must be the paramount issues." The AALS also distributed letters to 93,000 law school applicants entitled "Law School Ranking May be Hazardous To Your Health." The letter was endorsed by Strickland and deans of 164 of the 180 law schools approved by the American Bar Association, including the majority of law schools highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report. -30- #O-4060/Local,OrDailies,OrLaw,General Ed,Higher Ed,Arch