The latest U.S. News and World Report places Purdue’s Gambaro Graduate Program of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAE) in a tie for No. 2 in the nation, and the No. 1 public institution!

“The reputation of our graduate program strongly reflects the research we do. This ranking is an indicator of the phenomenal work of our research groups, our unmatched breadth in facilities, and the international impact of our research results,” says William Crossley, who has been the Uhrig & Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 2019.

"Our graduate curriculum is also excellent, as reflected in the success of our on-campus graduate students and our distance non-thesis Master’s degree students," Crossley says.

This rank announcement follows the AAE undergraduate program moving up to third — its highest rank ever — and the school as a whole producing more aerospace engineering graduates than any other U.S. institution.

AAE's graduate program previously held steady between 5th and 6th for nearly 25 years. The school has seen a 35% increase in graduates in just the last 4 years, with 176 master’s degrees and 36 PhDs granted in the 2022-23 academic year. As enrollment and graduation numbers increased, Crossley worked to maintain educational quality: He has overseen increases in faculty and staff, expansions in lab space, and the opening of multiple new, high-impact research facilities at Zucrow Labs and Purdue Airport.

“We’ve shown that, with continued investment in our faculty, students, and staff, we can continue to be the biggest and still be high among the best,” Crossley says.

The four-way tie for second includes Stanford, Caltech and Georgia Tech. MIT holds the top spot. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor takes sixth place, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, UC Boulder, UT Austin, and Texas A&M round out the top 10.

Purdue's graduate engineering program is ranked 6^th overall in the U.S.