Pritzker Ranking Drop

[FutureMDapplicant]

Hi,

I am a future MD applicant, and the Pritzker school of medicine has for a long time been my dream school (I am from the Midwest!). I was curious if anyone knew why Pritzker fell so many spots in the USNews ranking this year (11 to 15!)? Is Pritzker trending downwards or was this just a random blip on the radar? Thank you!

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[Gilakend]

Those rankings don't really matter and 11 vs 15 doesn't matter. I would care much more about what current students say rather than what USNews ranks them.

 

[Runner500]

Who cares?

 

[bannie22]

Location

 

[Nietzsche's Barber]

Well, you obviously know what needs to be done. They are noticeably undeserving of your talents. Find greener pastures.

You will one day see how physicians who trained at filth schools can actually be good at their jobs...even better than someone who trained at a top 10!

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

Well, you obviously know what needs to be done. They are noticeably undeserving of your talents. Find greener pastures.

You will one day see how physicians who trained at filth schools can actually be good at their jobs...even better than someone who trained at a top 10!

I concur with this man.

 

[Gaian]

Just because the ranking changed doesn't mean the school changed in any significant way. If you wanted to go to Pritzker before, a one year fluctuation in ranking shouldn't change your desire. If you're concerned about public perception of where you might to school, public perception doesn't respond to one year fluctuations in US News Ranking.

 

[FutureMDapplicant]

I am not prestige crazy at all, and if I were to be fortunate enough to be accepted to Pritzker I would accept hands down because of how it matches with my social justice and academic research interests.

I just thought it was a valid question to ask about the ranking drop to see if anyone had any insight. That is all (not trying to start a top 10 vs everyone else thread here). But thanks everyone for chiming in.

 

[efle]

There are small fluctuations year to year based on the exact MCAT/GPA medians, NIH funds, and reputation scores. I can tell you reputation has been stable, though U Chicago has long been ranked higher than its relative reputation score (probably because they keep such high stats medians).

Quoting myself from another post if you're curious where U Chicago falls by reputation this year:

Yeah it's a very straightforward survey where PDs are asked to rate programs on a 5-point scale (or mark that they are not familiar enough with a program to score it). Same deal for the peer scores.

There's not much fluctuation between years. For example this is last year, and it now looks like this for the PD first 20:

Harvard, Hopkins, UCSF, Penn
WashU, Stanford
Duke, Michigan, Columbia, UCLA
Cornell
Yale, Vandy, Northwestern
U Washington, Chicago, Pitt, Emory, Baylor
Mayo

and last year:

but here are the current orders for the top few dozen

By PD assessment:

Harvard, Hopkins, UCSF
Stanford, Penn
WashU, Duke, Columbia
Michigan
Cornell, UCLA, U of Wash, Vandy
Northwestern, Yale
Baylor, Emory, U Chicago, Pitt
Mayo
UTSW, UVA
NYU, Oregon, UCSD, UNC
Brown, Case Western, Dartmouth, Gtown, Sinai, Rochester, USC, U of Wisconsin
Indiana, Tufts, Colorado, Iowa, U of Minnesota
Boston U, Ohio State, U of Alabama, Wake Forest, U of Utah
Miami, Einstein

So looks like U Chicago consistently comes in with Pitt/Emory/Baylor

 

[Doctor Strange]

It literally doesn't matter.

 

[efle]

Also OP, no love for WashU?? With interests in academia, a city in need of service, and obviously some concern for ranking/reputation, I'm surprised they aren't your fav

 

[FutureMDapplicant]

Without giving up too much about myself to preserve anonymity, I am from the south suburbs of Chicago but both parents grew up in the inner city (south and west sides) so going to medical school and serving Chicago has always kind of been the direction I want to head in. I am also really interested in Rush (affiliated with what was previously called Cook County Hospital - but not the research powerhouse Pritzker is). I am still about a year away from applying and have not really looked into WashU, but I sure will. Thank you efle for your previous response breaking down the rankings. I think you fully answered my original question.

 

[efle]

Without giving up too much about myself to preserve anonymity, I am from the south suburbs of Chicago but both parents grew up in the inner city (south and west sides) so going to medical school and serving Chicago has always kind of been the direction I want to head in. I am also really interested in Rush (affiliated with what was previously called Cook County Hospital - but not the research powerhouse Pritzker is). I am still about a year away from applying and have not really looked into WashU, but I sure will. Thank you efle for your previous response breaking down the rankings. I think you fully answered my original question.

Both U Chicago and WashU (and Feinberg, though very different vibe there) love the same kinds of applicants (high stats), so if you are competitive for U Chicago I'd make sure and apply to both. You would still easily be able to match back to Chicago academic centers.

 

[FutureMDapplicant]

Will do! Also keep a look out in the next year or so, I am sure I will post a thread with my stats and ask for help with school selection for AMCAS. Thank you everyone for your responses today!

 

[efle]

Make sure to put it in the What Are My Chances forum so wedgedog doesn't have an aneurysm