<p>blueducky, the NRC rankings are conducted by the U.S. National Research Council. You can read a little more about the organization [url=<a href=“http://sites.nationalacademies.org/nrc/index.htm]here[/url”>http://sites.nationalacademies.org/nrc/index.htm]here[/url</a>], but in general they are a de facto government organization. From what I have heard from other people, they give the most reliable rankings of graduate programs. The downside is that they take a long time to get their reports out.</p>