Med Schools - Tiers?

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chessodoc

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So for a while I have noticed people rank certain schools into Tiers. What are these tiers based upon, US news research rank? Also, how many tiers are there...and is there an equivalent number of schools in each tier? I am confused? :confused:

PS: I actually think the rankings are stupid.

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I wasn't aware of a tier system in medical school rankings, only law school. But IIRC most of the rankings are based on research.
 
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I wasn't aware of a tier system in medical school rankings, only law school. But IIRC most of the rankings are based on research.

I feel like the "tiers" for US MD schools is more of just a general consensus among students and peers based on competitiveness, reputation, etc.
 
Score 4.6 - 5.0 (In order of ratings)
-Harvard, JHU, Duke, Stanford

Score 4.1 - 4.5
-Wash U St. Louis, UPenn, UCSF, UWSOM, UCLA, Yale, Columbia, Michigan, Pitt, Chicago, Vanderbilt, Cornell, UNC Chapel Hill, UT Southwestern

Score 3.6 - 4.0
-Baylor, UCSD, Emory, Northwestern, Case Western, Mayo, Mt. Sinai, UVA, UAB, Colorado, Wisconsin-Madison, Brown, Dartmouth, Iowa, NYU, Oregon, Minnesota, Georgetown, Tufts

Score 3.1 - 3.5
-Ohio State, Rochester, USC, Einstein, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, Boston, UCI, Maryland, Indiana, UCD, Florida, Utah, U Mass, Med College Wisc, UConn, Miami, Tulane, UI Chicago, UT Houston, UT Galveston, Vermont, Jefferson, Med College SC, GW, Loyola Stritch, Rush, SLU, Texas A&M, UMDNJ RWJ, USUHS, Arizona, Louisville, Nebraska, Tennessee, VCU

Score 2.6 - 3.0
-Everything else

I think of the peer assessment ratings are more important than the research rankings and a more clear indicator of the quality of medical schools. I consider these to be the Tiers of medical schools. You can argue with me, but this is what I believe.

Source: US News and World Report 2009 Rankings
 
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Doesn't the US news include the peer assessment rankings in their calculations?
 
Doesn't the US news include the peer assessment rankings in their calculations?

It does. In the research ranking:

20% Peer assessment score
20% Residency directors assessment score
20% Total research activity
10% Avg. research activity per faculty
13% Avg. MCAT score
6% Avg. undergraduate GPA

Source: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-graduate-schools/2008/03/26/medicine-methodology.html

Personally, I pay more attention to the residency directors assessment score.

Quote:
"In the fall of 2007, residency program directors were asked to rate programs on two separate survey instruments. One survey dealt with research and was sent to a sample of residency program directors in fields outside primary care, including surgery, psychiatry, and radiology. The other survey involved primary care and was sent to residency directors in the fields of family practice, pediatrics, and internal medicine. Survey recipients were asked to rate programs on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Those individuals who did not know enough about a program to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know." A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school. About 25 percent of those surveyed for research medical schools responded; eighteen percent responded for primary-care."

Of course, the score doesn't give field-by-field detail but it does paint an overall picture of how certain residencies might look upon medical schools when it comes time for us to apply again.
 
I started listing out residency directors assessment scores but stopped after realizing they are nearly identical to peer assessment scores.

Tiers by residency directors assessment:

Score 4.6 - 5.0 (In order of ratings, alphabetical if tied)
Harvard, JHU, Duke, Stanford

Score 4.1 - 4.5
WUSTL, Michigan, Penn, UCSF, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, Washington, Vandy, Chicago, Pitt, UCLA, UNC, UTSW

Score 3.6 - 4.0
Emory, Northwestern, UCSD, Baylor, Case, Dartmouth, Iowa, Mayo, UAB, Brown, Colorado, MSSM, Tufts, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Minnesota, NYU, OHSU

etc.
 
I started listing out residency directors assessment scores but stopped after realizing they are nearly identical to peer assessment scores.

Tiers by residency directors assessment:

Score 4.6 - 5.0 (In order of ratings, alphabetical if tied)
Harvard, JHU, Duke, Stanford

Score 4.1 - 4.5
WUSTL, Michigan, Penn, UCSF, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, Washington, Vandy, Chicago, Pitt, UCLA, UNC, UTSW

Score 3.6 - 4.0
Emory, Northwestern, UCSD, Baylor, Case, Dartmouth, Iowa, Mayo, UAB, Brown, Colorado, MSSM, Tufts, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Minnesota, NYU, OHSU

etc.

So there are 4 schools in Tier 1? :confused:
 
^I'll bet WashU is PISSED that they are a Lower Tier school. Oh, wait, none of this matters at all, because it is a medical SCHOOL. As in, the only ranking that WOULD matter is quality of teaching rankings, USMLE scores, and then residency placements.

Soo many threads on SDN, so few topics.​
 
I feel like the "tiers" for US MD schools is more of just a general consensus among students and peers based on competitiveness, reputation, etc.

This is also what I assume when I hear the word "tiers" for medical school.

Also, and I'm sort of surprised this hasn't been mentioned already, but they don't matter.
 
^I'll bet WashU is PISSED that they are a Lower Tier school. Oh, wait, none of this matters at all, because it is a medical SCHOOL. As in, the only ranking that WOULD matter is quality of teaching rankings, USMLE scores, and then residency placements.​

Where can we find out about teaching rankings?

As an applicant unsure of which residency I would like to pursue, how do you suggest evaluating residency placements? What should we be looking for?

Is there a resource where USMLE scores for all schools are located? I have not seen any schools I have interviewed at post their USMLE scores.

As an international applicant, I would very much like to find a way to evaluate schools other than using the US News rankings.

Thanks for your help.
 
Where can we find the raw peer assessment and residency director assessment scores? I can't seem to find it on the U.S. News site... is it one of those things you've gotta pay for?
 
So there are 4 schools in Tier 1? :confused:

As everyone's mentioned, there is really no way to "tier" the schools. The most important thing is to find a school that jives with your interests, do well there, and you will be a successful physician. These US News peer assessments and residency director assessments only matter if you are interested in medical schools that are research focused. A lot of medical schools out there have different foci, including international health, rural and primary care medicine, underserved medicine, with diminished focus on research. Giving a personal example, I'm just about finished with the application cycle and b/c of my research interest and background, have gotten interviews (and acceptances) at some of the research-heavy schools. I was not even offered interviews at some of the schools that have rural and primary care focus.
 
Where can we find the raw peer assessment and residency director assessment scores? I can't seem to find it on the U.S. News site... is it one of those things you've gotta pay for?

Yup.
 
Useless, except if your mom likes to brag to your neighbors.....

yikes, my mom does like to brag to our neighbors...ah, good thing she doesn't live in this country
 
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