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Statistics

NC State Statistics Program Ranked No. 20 Globally

SAS Hall

NC State’s statistics program has been ranked 20th in the world on a prestigious scorecard of international universities.

The ranking was published by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Officially named the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the Shanghai Rankings are based on a methodology that tracks six objective indicators, including the quality and impact of an institution’s research. Unlike the better-known ranking of “Best Colleges” marketed by U.S. News & World Report, the Shanghai Rankings do not include subjective measures of an institution’s reputation.

The Department of Statistics, founded by renowned statistician Gertrude Cox in 1941, is one of the oldest and largest statistics departments in the nation. Its faculty have won prestigious national awards from the American Statistical Association and the National Science Foundation. Between 2003 and 2017, the department was ranked as the top producer of statistics Ph.D.s in the nation by Amstat News.

The Shanghai Rankings were first published in 2003. Since 2009, the list has been managed by an independent organization, the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. In recent years the list has also identified the top universities in specific subjects, such as civil engineering, economics and biological sciences.

Five other NC State disciplines also ranked in the top 50 in the world in the 2019 Shanghai Rankings, and NC State ranked among the top 300 institutions overall.