U.S. News & World Report has ranked the University of Rochester's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) among the top private graduate engineering schools in the country.

"Rochester is clearly a peer of superb private research universities, such as Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Duke, and Rice," says Kevin Parker, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "All of these schools, like Rochester, have relatively small but sharply focused and truly excellent engineering schools, with a major presence in biomedical engineering."

The school, home of the nation's first doctoral program in optics and of the most powerful ultraviolet laser in the world, shares its ranked position with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of California at Davis. Among private engineering schools, SEAS ranks 15th in the nation, above such institutions as Duke University and Rice University.

"In a number of important indices of excellence, such as research expenditures per faculty and the selectivity of our graduate program, Rochester ranks very high—in the top 10," says Parker. "The Laboratory for Laser Energetics and the Institute of Optics are unique features of Rochester that add greatly to our overall reputation."