A Belle Number for UCI’s Belles-Lettres Department

UC Irvine’s graduate program in English has been ranked among the top 20 in the country in U.S. News & World Report’s 1998 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

The ranking appears in the magazine’s Feb. 23 issue.

The UCI graduate English program is ranked 16 on a list headed by UC Berkeley. The program was ranked 17 in 1996. (English was not ranked in 1997.)

Karen Lawrence, dean of the School of Humanities, said UCI’s English program is well-known nationally for several reasons: “The English and comparative literature department has a highly productive faculty with a wide variety of theoretical and critical approaches--with particular strength in criticism and theory, comparative literature, American literature and creative writing.”

Also receiving rankings was the Graduate School of Management, at 43, up from 46 in 1997. The Graduate School of Engineering ranked 49, compared with 45 in 1997.

The rankings are based on quality of faculty and graduate students, curriculum and reputation for scholarship.