Boston University OT Program Ranks Top in Its Class for Fifth Straight Year by U.S. News & World Report
Other graduate programs in Sargent College, School of Law, and School of Public Health also score high in rankings
Boston University’s Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences retained U.S. News & World Report’s nod as the best occupational therapy program in the United States, while other BU schools boast programs that are among the top 10 in their fields. Photo by Above Summit for Boston University Photography.
Boston University OT Program Ranks Top in Its Class for Fifth Straight Year by U.S. News & World Report
Other graduate programs in Sargent College, School of Law, and School of Public Health also score high in rankings
Boston University’s Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences retained its nation-topping ranking for occupational therapy instruction in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 evaluation of graduate school programs. It’s the fifth consecutive year that the program has claimed the first spot in the magazine’s rankings.
A half-dozen other BU programs cracked the top 10 in their respective disciplines:
- The School of Law’s health law program ranked second-best in the country.
- Sargent’s speech-language pathology program clocked in at sixth best.
- The School of Public Health had four programs in the top 10: epidemiology (seventh), biostatistics (eighth), public health (ninth), and social behavior (also ninth).
“Sargent has a long history of having top-ranked programs,” says Gloria Waters, BU provost, chief academic officer, and former dean of Sargent. “It is rewarding to see the occupational therapy program at the top of the rankings again. This recognition reflects the program’s faculty, support staff, and the college’s commitment to creating impactful educational experiences that translate into real-world outcomes.”
Of the high rankings for the other University programs, Waters says, “Faculty and staff are creating exceptional educational experiences across BU’s schools and colleges every day. Their efforts are not only reflected in national rankings like these, but in the quality of the students that go on to lead in their chosen fields.”
Faculty and staff are creating exceptional educational experiences across BU’s schools and colleges every day.
Depending on the discipline it is evaluating, U.S. News uses different assessment methodologies. For rankings of programs in sciences, social sciences, humanities, and health, the magazine relies on peer assessment surveys.
By contrast, for schools of business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing, the rankings are based on two types of data, U.S. News says: “expert opinion about program excellence, and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s academic productivity and postgraduate outcomes.” Last fall and early this year, the magazine sent schools the statistical surveys and sent peer assessments to academics and professionals in the fields being evaluated.
The peer assessments asked deans, program directors, and senior faculty to rank the academic quality of programs in their disciplines, from 5 (outstanding) to 1 (marginal). U.S. News buttressed those evaluations with surveys of professionals hiring or working with recent graduates in certain fields.