The Master of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) program at Georgia Tech is ranked fifth in Planetizen's newly released 2014 Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs. A leading source for urban planning news, Planetizen administers the only comprehensive ranking of graduate urban planning programs in the United States.

This ranking places Georgia Tech first among all university planning programs in the South. Georgia Tech was additionally recognized as having one of the largest alumni networks of all the ranked universities.  Tech was ranked eighth in the nation in Planetizen's 2012 guide.

<p?"The Planetizen Guide is a widely-used, rich source of information about graduate planning programs in the United States," comments School of City and Regional Planning Chair, Bruce Stiftel. "Identification as a top five program by Planetizenin their performance indicator-based ranking is a welcome recognition of Georgia Tech's innovative and professionally-engaged planning education."

Rankings are based on a reputational survey of planning educators; program characteristics such as student retention, financial aid, and student/faculty ratio; faculty characteristics such as diversity and research productivity; and student characteristics including employment rate post-graduation, average GPA and GRE scores, and diversity of the student body.

"I am very proud of the great strides our School of City and Regional Planning has made in recent years," says Steve French, dean of the College of Architecture. "This top five ranking is a reflection of the outstanding scholarship and clear focus on continual improvement they are dedicated to."

"It's an exciting time to be in planning at Georgia Tech and in Atlanta, and the school's move to the number five spot really reflects the effort that faculty, students, and alumni put into their daily work," says Katie Perumbeti, city and regional planning graduate student and president of the Student Planning Association (SPA).

Tech's fifth place ranking follows Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of California, Berkeley; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and University of California, Los Angeles. Rounding out the top ten are Rutgers, Cornell University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Southern California, and Harvard University.

Georgia Tech's graduate planning program began in 1952 and counts more than 1,400 alumni now working in 49 states and territories and 31 foreign countries. In addition to the MCRP program, the School of City and Regional Planning offers courses for undergraduates, as well as a Ph.D. program in city and regional planning, a Master of Science in Geographic Information Science and Technology, and a Master of Science in Urban Design.  

Planetizen's 4th Edition Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs is available online and for purchase from the Planetizen website.