New outcome-based ranking of research medical schools

[chronicidal]

In this month's Academic Medicine, Goldstein et al. write a perspective article entitled "What Makes a Top Research Medical School?", reporting a new ranking of research medical schools. The ranking is predominantly dependent on the number of publications of graduates from 1950-2009, but also their NIH R01 grants, HHMI investigatorship, professional awards, and so forth. This ranking is different from existing rankings such as USNWR because it relies on the academic outcomes of graduates of medical schools.

As with all rankings, one should keep in mind a number of caveats related to methodology. Weights of individual factors in the composite score are subjective value statements. Why R01 grants are worth 10 times the number of points of other grants is arbitrary. The fact that AOA membership is included is nonsense because it is awarded to a fixed proportion of students by each school. The relevance of some of the included awards such as Marquis Who's Who or SuperDoctors is questionable.

Here are the top 10: Harvard, Hopkins, Yale, UChicago, Cornell, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, Duke, WashU.

A notable difference from USNWR is the absence of UCSF in the top 10. The authors speculate that the strength of UCSF in USNWR is driven by its strong faculty that bring in research dollars and academic reputation, less so by its students. The authors look at time trends over the decades and note that UCSF's score by this ranking method dropped significantly in the 1960s and has been slowly recovering since then. The cause is unclear, but it coincides with some upheavals in the admissions process, including the beginning of affirmative action.

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[medic86]

Third time's a charm, I guess. 😛

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Third time's a charm, I guess. 😛

Isn't this the 4th time?!

 

[GomersGoToGround]

I'll get my ruler, somebody hold my pants.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

In this month's Academic Medicine, Goldstein et al. write a perspective article entitled "What Makes a Top Research Medical School?", reporting a new ranking of research medical schools. The ranking is predominantly dependent on the number of publications of graduates from 1950-2009, but also their NIH R01 grants, HHMI investigatorship, professional awards, and so forth. This ranking is different from existing rankings such as USNWR because it relies on the academic outcomes of graduates of medical schools.

As with all rankings, one should keep in mind a number of caveats related to methodology. Weights of individual factors in the composite score are subjective value statements. Why R01 grants are worth 10 times the number of points of other grants is arbitrary. The fact that AOA membership is included is nonsense because it is awarded to a fixed proportion of students by each school. The relevance of some of the included awards such as Marquis Who's Who or SuperDoctors is questionable.

Here are the top 10: Harvard, Hopkins, Yale, UChicago, Cornell, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, Duke, WashU.

A notable difference from USNWR is the absence of UCSF in the top 10. The authors speculate that the strength of UCSF in USNWR is driven by its strong faculty that bring in research dollars and academic reputation, less so by its students. The authors look at time trends over the decades and note that UCSF's score by this ranking method dropped significantly in the 1960s and has been slowly recovering since then. The cause is unclear, but it coincides with some upheavals in the admissions process, including the beginning of affirmative action.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/alternative-to-usnews-rankings-for-med-schools.1117573/

 

[Psai]

Man I used to hate when people complained about reposts but damn

 

[chronicidal]

Wups.

 

[Narmerguy]

Lol, I actually merged the first one together with mine but gave up after the other ones. Honestly I think it's just a sign that it's a very interesting paper so I'm glad people are engaging with it.

 

[darkjedi]

I've always wondered why USNWR is pretty much the only ranking of med schools, whereas b-schools have like 5 different lists. It's interesting to see different perspectives.

 

[Law2Doc]

I've always wondered why USNWR is pretty much the only ranking of med schools, whereas b-schools have like 5 different lists. It's interesting to see different perspectives.

Well with B schools more so than med school nobody outside the top twenty (if that) matters. So everybody wants to create a B school list that puts their school into the all important pedigree even if they have to include number of bathrooms on campus as the area in which they excel. By contrast you can have an equally storied career coming out of the seventieth best med school as the seventh. So the need to be on the short list just isn't as pressing.

 

[Narmerguy]

Well with B schools more so than med school nobody outside the top twenty (if that) matters. So everybody wants to create a B school list that puts their school into the all important pedigree even if they have to include number of bathrooms on campus as the area in which they excel. By contrast you can have an equally storied career coming out of the seventieth best med school as the seventh. So the need to be on the short list just isn't as pressing.

What's funny is that people say that, but who exactly the top 20 is, and by what metric, is not known. It's one of those things where the rule has superseded the reason.

 

[mimelim]

What's funny is that people say that, but who exactly the top 20 is, and by what metric, is not known. It's one of those things where the rule has superseded the reason.

I used to hear this all the time from my wife's friends. They would always talk about "T14" ie top 14 law school. I always thought it was just about the stupidest thing I could imagine, but then my wife and her classmates graduated and now talking to law school recruiters, there is a HUGE gap between "tier 1" and "non-tier 1" schools. Still think it is stupid, but it is a very real thing, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[Lucca]

I used to hear this all the time from my wife's friends. They would always talk about "T14" ie top 14 law school. I always thought it was just about the stupidest thing I could imagine, but then my wife and her classmates graduated and now talking to law school recruiters, there is a HUGE gap between "tier 1" and "non-tier 1" schools. Still think it is stupid, but it is a very real thing, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

My theory is that business and law graduate demands are actually determined by a finite market. Their supply pool is enormous and much larger than the market for the most coveted positions so as competition increases the important factors probably become more and more arbitrary since you can only reasonably screen people for so long until you have a bunch of essentially professionally equivalent people. In medicine, the market is essentially infinite and the supply pool is small and rigorously screened. It's not to say that there isn't competition in applying for residency or living in a highly desirable area but because of the supply pool this competition has not reached to the point of "oh you went to a top 20 school" vs. "what are you doing applying here with a number 25 degree" or to the point where we have MDs professionally unable to practice medicine like many JDs, through no fault other than they were not pedigreed.

 

[moop]

I used to hear this all the time from my wife's friends. They would always talk about "T14" ie top 14 law school. I always thought it was just about the stupidest thing I could imagine, but then my wife and her classmates graduated and now talking to law school recruiters, there is a HUGE gap between "tier 1" and "non-tier 1" schools. Still think it is stupid, but it is a very real thing, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Look up the admissions stats. Then it'll make sense. Outside of the T14, any derp with a 3.4/155 can waltz into law school, and honestly, biglaw recruiters don't have the patience to see if those late bloomers ever flower when they have the 3.75/165 or even 3.9/175s to choose from straight up. Also, there's like little quality control for law schools, so the teaching and experienced garnered really vary.