Penn State programs are again outperforming peer institutions. In the recently released 2015 QS World University Rankings by Subject, Penn State programs broke the top 200 in 31 of 36 disciplines studied. Eight subjects — materials science (28), agriculture and forestry (31), education (32), geography (32), earth and marine sciences (36), mechanical aeronautical and manufacturing engineering (38), communication and media studies (44), and statistics and operational research (47) — ranked inside the 50.

The rankings are an extension to the annual QS World University Rankings. Because many university rankings factor only the entire institution, this method provides more specified information to help further compare institutions.

The 2015 edition worked to more accurately categorize diverse subjects by adjusting weighting between disciplines to recognize that some are larger than others.

“Collectively these factors lead to different levels of strength in depth in the data and as a result from 2015, the number of institutions published in these rankings will vary by discipline from as few as 50 in Dentistry to as many as 400 in Physics,” it explains.

To rate the disciplines, the surveyors weighed a variety of factors including reputation, the amount of research faculty members have published, and impact. A total of 894 institutions were ranked of 3,551 universities evaluated.

Penn State was ranked the No. 112 institution overall by the rankings, a dropoff from the previous two years.