I dunno,
Nobody seems to agree on the importance of the list. Differences between schools are often trivial and arguably someone can have a better experience and better preparation for their career by attending the school ranked number sixty-seven instead of the school ranked number thirty-five (no offense to numbers thirty-five and sixty-seven). My premed advisor may have hit on something when she said there are one hundred fifty schools and Harvard.
I mean, for some people the list really looks like this...
1. Harvard
2. Everybody else
For someone who really wants to get into Case Western, it looks a little like this...
1. Harvard
2. Case
3. Everybody else
And for the vast majority of people on this forum it may seem even more like this...
1. Insert school with the longest "countdown thread"
2. Insert school with a famous dean of admissions
3. Insert school that boasts some revolutionary variety of PBL
4. Insert state school
5. Insert school with a really cool location
6. Insert school that "looks past the numbers"
7. Insert every other school
US News should only rank only the five or so schools that people attend BECAUSE of their rank... like places that attract students who really care about the numbers... you know who they are. US News should devote the rest of their ink to handing out superlatives, not unlike the ones that some of your classmates received in high school. Instead of "most likely to succeed" or "most likely to become famous," they should honor schools with "most likely to invite you to apply to their program and have the rejection letter out to you before your check cashes" or "least likely to allow its third year students to touch patients," or perhaps "most likely to graduate doctors who will return to the states with a nice tan."
I think (since ALL med schools give pretty much the same education and ALL are pretty good) that these superlatives would be more helpful than a list and some residency directors score... "Oh, you're bragging cuz your school got a 3.7 and mine's only got a 3.5? Well, that's because the students at my school are more chill and down-to-earth than the gunners your school lets loose on residency directors!" Splitting hairs.