The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs has again earned the No. 1 overall ranking, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Public Affairs Schools rankings. The school also remains highly ranked in 10 subspecialties, including the top ranking in public management and leadership.

“To be recognized by peers who share our dedication to public service means a great deal,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “What this recognition speaks to is people—faculty who are doing research that matters and teaching with genuine commitment, staff who work every day to make sure our school achieves its mission, students whose scholarship and drive will define our future, and alumni who have taken their Maxwell foundation and done remarkable things with it. I’m grateful to our peers for seeing what we see every day.”

The Best Public Affairs Schools rankings are based solely on surveys of deans, directors and department chairs representing 266 master’s programs in public affairs and public administration. Each school is numerically ranked by peer school leadership on a 5-point scale, with the average score determining the school’s overall rank. Additionally, survey respondents can nominate up to 15 schools for excellence in 12 subspecialties, with the number of nominations determining each school’s position in the ranking. This year, Maxwell shares the top ranking with Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

U.S. News began ranking graduate programs in public affairs in 1995. Since then, the Maxwell School has been ranked No. 1 in every survey but one. Maxwell also ranks highly this year in the following subspecialties:

“This is an honor, and we thank our peers for recognizing this school’s dedication to public affairs education,” says Len Lopoo, associate dean, chair and professor of public administration and international affairs.

The public health program—newly transitioned to the Maxwell School—also improved its U.S. News & World Report rankings, advancing 10 spots among the more than 200 schools ranked in its field. The academic department moved to Maxwell in the summer of 2025 from its former home in the Falk College of Sport, bringing 14 faculty members with expertise in such areas as health disparities, health communications and epidemiology and complementing longstanding areas of focus on health among existing Maxwell faculty and Maxwell-based research centers, like the Aging Studies Institute and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health.

Launched in 1924 as the School of American Citizenship by Syracuse University alumnus George Holmes Maxwell, the school began with a graduate program in public administration, an undergraduate citizenship course and a weekly seminar in political science. Today the school is home to 13 academic departments and programs and more than 15 interdisciplinary research centers and institutes, where students and scholars grapple with a range of issues, including environmental sustainability; population health and aging; law and security; conflict resolution; democracy and journalism; global affairs; and regional studies.