San Francisco State University's graduate and doctoral physical therapy program ranks 15th nationwide, according to U.S. News and World Report's recently released America's Best Graduate Schools. SFSU is one of only four public institutions and only two California universities listed in the top 15. Private institutions University of Southern California and Washington University in St. Louis topped the list.

Established in 1989, the joint program with the University of California San Francisco offers academic and clinical study on both campuses. The program provides students with the opportunity to become respected clinical scholars and leaders as clinical educators, program evaluators, collaborative clinical researchers, managers and clinical specialists. Within the past five years, two SFSU students have won the prestigious McMillan Doctoral Scholarship awarded by the American Physical Therapy Association.

Each year the program turns out 28 to 32 graduates who find work within one month of graduation, according to Linda Wanek, interim co-chair of the UCSF-SFSU program. "Our graduates are highly sought after for physical therapy positions throughout California," says Wanek.

U.S. News ranks graduate programs in the areas of business, education, engineering, law and medicine on an annual basis. The rankings are based on expert evaluation of program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students. U.S. News surveyed more than 1,000 programs nationally and nearly 9,100 academics and other professionals throughout the fall of 2003.

The UCSF-SFSU program has ranked within the top 15 schools in the annual survey for the past several years.

The public affairs unit within the SFSU graduate Public Administration program also made the list of America's Best Graduate Schools, ranking 68 on the U.S. News list.

-- Denize Springer