Leading Guide to Urban Planning Programs Ranks Pratt Among Best

Of the 264 planning programs in the country, Pratt’s City and Regional Planning program ranks sixth nationally among master’s degree-granting institutions that do not also grant Ph.D.s.  According to educators, Pratt ranks 22nd nationally among all programs, including those that grant Ph.D.s. Harvard is 24th.  The rankings are in the Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs—the only comprehensive ranking and listing of graduate urban planning programs available.

“We have had our best showing to date in Planetizen,” says program chair John Shapiro. “It’s thanks to extraordinary professors, our links to the Pratt Center for Community Development, and 50 years of being true to an emphasis on practice over theory, and community over top-down planning.”

The 2012 guide was published by Urban Insight of Los Angeles. The guide allows readers to make a nationwide comparison among the different graduate programs in urban planning. Thousands have used Planetizen to weigh the relative strengths and qualities of different graduate planning programs while reviewing detailed information about each one. The invaluable resource also provides candid student comments from most institutions.

Text: Adrienne Gyongy

Comments

[Robert F. Fumo]

I was 40 years old when i entered this program in 1980. I had lived and taught in South America and Europe, so I was not a neophyte in life. I spent 2 1/2 years there getting my Master's. I can truly say that intellectually it was the best experience of my life. I didn't like the program, I loved it. The professors, most of them younger than me, were exceptional. Sullivan, Zisser, Zabarkes, etc were so memorable to me. I was impressed.

I am not surprised that it is ranked so high. My last year there we had a planning competition with all the other Master's program in the metropolitan area. To use the vernacular, we cleaned their clocks. It wasn't even close.