The schools of law and education have once again been rated among the top 50 graduate schools in the nation, and are the best public schools in New England, according to the latest issue of U.S. News & World Report.

The School of Law climbed in the rankings from 48 to 40, while the School of Education, ranked 46th in the nation, was one of only three schools of education - and the only public school - from New England, in the top 50, along with Harvard and Boston College.

"We really believe our school is moving forward, and this gain reflects that," Kurt Strasser, associate dean of the School of Law, said Thursday. "We also have made a series of advances in the past year that are not likely to be reflected in this year's ratings so, hopefully, we can continue our climb next year."

The School of Education, which received a $21 million gift earlier this month from alumnus Raymond Neag, hopes several programs spurred by the gift will help it climb the charts next year. Dean Richard Schwab has aspirations of making the school one of the 10 best in the country.

"We're certainly in very good company," Schwab said, noting that there are nearly 1,200 schools of education in the country, including about 200 that grant Ph.D. and Ed.D. degrees and are ranked. Many have large endowments and boast twice as many faculty as UConn. The Neag gift is expected to help in those areas, as well as programmatically.

Programmatic gains also could help the law school continue to move upward in the ranks next year, said Strasser. He said UConn is the only university in the nation that offers a degree in insurance law, a program that is now completing its first year, and administrators also have beefed up faculty and programming in intellectual property law, an increasingly important legal discipline.

Strasser also said applications for the fall are skyrocketing, indicating that students are recognizing the school's efforts to move to the top. "The world continues to figure out that there are a lot of good things going on here."

Richard Veilleux