UC Berkeley continued to rank highly in the U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of the nation's top graduate school programs, released last week.

The English graduate program held onto its No. 1 position from last year, tying with Harvard University and Yale University. The computer science and chemistry programs also tied at first in the nation, according to the report, entitled "America's Best Graduate Schools 2009."

Haas School of Business rose one slot to tie at No. 7 with Dartmouth College's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration. Meanwhile, Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business shared the No. 1 spot.

Tom Campbell, the dean of Haas, said the ratings will benefit the school's reputation.

"To go up from eight to seven was a very happy event and I couldn't be more pleased," he said.

Boalt Hall School of Law also rose from eighth to sixth place, with Yale Law School in first.

Other UC Berkeley graduate programs-including history, sociology, psychology, engineering, biological sciences, math, physics and economics-ranked among the top three in their respective categories.

While campus officials said the new results pleased them, they pointed out that institutional rankings fluctuate from year to year and often seem arbitrary.

"Obviously we think that we have a program of excellence here, but we don't feel that the rankings can really capture a school's comprehensive program," said Boalt Hall spokesperson Susan Gluss.

The report ranks graduate schools based on expert opinion about program quality. Professional schools' rankings also weigh statistics including acceptance rates, placement rates and test scores. This data came from fall 2007 surveys of more than 1,200 programs and 14,000 academics and professionals, according to the report.

This year, the magazine added rankings for several graduate programs, including public affairs, in which UC Berkeley ranked sixth.

Students said the rankings provide a helpful starting point when choosing schools, but are not the only factor.

"It has some value in terms of basic approximation, but I don't trust their ability to choose between No. 14 and No. 15, or even No. 6 or No. 8," said Aaron Laycook, a first-year student at Boalt Hall. "It can be helpful and useful, but only to a certain extent."

Buzz Buzko, a first-year Haas graduate student, echoed Laycook's sentiment.

"It's great Haas is No. 7 right now, but I don't think it's a huge deal," he said, adding, "I will not have to prove to people that I'm worth anything when I graduate-they will recognize that this is worth something."

First-year Haas student Andrey Antonov said these lists fail to capture an institution's intangible qualities, such as Haas' emphasis on social responsibility, non-conformist thinking and entrepreneurship.

"Rankings often do not catch the most important things in our lives," he said.

Campbell agreed, saying that fixating on the slightest differences between statistics and rankings can become irrelevant.

"Our students are among the very best in the world ... whether that shows up as No. 8, 5 or 6," he said.

Tags: US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, RANKINGS