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- QS Quacquarelli Symonds released its annual global ranking by academic subject.
- The University of Pennsylvania ranked at the top of the ranking for nursing programs.
- The following are the top 17 US schools for nursing and where they placed on the overall list.
The University of Pennsylvania placed at the top of global higher education research company QS Quacquarelli Symonds' new list of the best universities for students who want to become nurses.
This is the 11th set of QS World University Rankings by Subject, which looks at universities across the world to compile a list of the best schools for various subjects, including law and medicine.
This year's rankings cover 51 academic subjects that fall into five categories: arts and humanities; engineering and technology; life sciences and medicine; natural sciences; and social sciences and management.
US schools were No. 1 in 30 of the 2021 global rankings, including for nursing. To create these rankings, QS looked at academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, and h-index. QS describes the h-index as an index that is "based on the set of the academic's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications."
QS used these metrics to calculate an overall score for a school in each of the subject rankings, but weights for the four metrics varied by subject. The full methodology can be found on QS' website.
The following are the top 17 US schools from the nursing program ranking, including where they placed on the overall list. All the various subject rankings and the full nursing table can be found on QS' website.
Vanderbilt University
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2021 ranking: 47 (tie)
Overall score: 81.7
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Read more about Vanderbilt University on QS Top Universities.
University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC)
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2021 ranking: 43 (tie)
Overall score: 82.1
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Read more about UIC on QS Top Universities.
Pennsylvania State University
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2021 ranking: 43 (tie)
Overall score: 82.1
Location: Centre County, Pennsylvania
Read more about Pennsylvania State University on QS Top Universities.
Ohio State University
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2021 ranking: 34
Overall score: 83.7
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Read more about Ohio State University on QS Top Universities.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
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2021 ranking: 27 (tie)
Overall score: 85.8
Location: Los Angeles, California
Read more about UCLA on QS Top Universities.
New York University (NYU)
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2021 ranking: 24
Overall score: 86.2
Location: New York City, New York
Read more about NYU on QS Top Universities.
University of Pittsburgh
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2021 ranking: 21
Overall score: 87.3
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Read more about University of Pittsburgh on QS Top Universities.
Emory University
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2021 ranking: 18 (tie)
Overall score: 87.9
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Read more about Emory University on QS Top Universities.
Columbia University
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2021 ranking: 18 (tie)
Overall score: 87.9
Location: New York City, New York
Read more about Columbia University on QS Top Universities.
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Michigan.
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Duke University
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2021 ranking: 10
Overall score: 90.7
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Read more about Duke University on QS Top Universities.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Yale University
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2021 ranking: 7
Overall score: 91.2
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Read more about Yale University on QS Top Universities.
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, California.
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2021 ranking: 6
Overall score: 91.4
Location: San Francisco, California
Read more about UCSF on QS Top Universities.
University of Washington
University of Washington.
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2021 ranking: 4
Overall score: 93.2
Location: Seattle, Washington
Read more about University of Washington on QS Top Universities.
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
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2021 ranking: 3
Overall score: 93.5
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Read more about Johns Hopkins University on QS Top Universities.
University of Pennsylvania
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2021 ranking: 1
Overall score: 95.5
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Read more about the University of Pennsylvania on QS Top Universities.