School Rankings: Tracking changes

[rager1]

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A friend and I were discussing changes in school rankings over the years and I started wondering if there was a database that has the history of school rankings...

As much as I don't care about the specific ranking a given school receives (e.g., a change from 4th place to 5th place means nothing), I think it'd be interesting to see which schools have steadily risen or declined, which schools typically tie from year to year, etc...

Does anyone know if there's a webpage or reference out there that recorded each year?

If people have old publications of rankings, could you perhaps just post the year of the publication you have and the names of the Top 15 - 25 schools? The names and rankings alone would be awesome; no need to speed up typing injuries by entering countless numbers... 🙂

I'll post the first set of old rankings in a follow up to this thread starter.

--rager1

 

[rager1]

1998 Rankings
(taken from Stanford's Premed Association website)
1 Harvard University (MA)
2 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
3 University of Pennsylvania
4 Washington University (MO)
5 Yale University (CT)
6 Duke University (NC)
6 University of California San Francisco
8 Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY)
9 University of Washington
10 Stanford University (CA)
10 University of California Los Angeles
10 University of Michigan Ann Arbor
13 Cornell University (Weill) (NY)
14 Mayo Medical School (MN)
15 Baylor College of Medicine (TX)


--rager1

 

[Amy B]

Aren't the rankings based on certain things and vary within those certain areas. Like the list you posted here, weren't those the top 25 research med schools? I seem to remember US and World Report does rankings based on things like best family practice training schools, best research schools, best to give rural practice training, best cost, etc...

 

[ice_23]

I think he means research rankings, which is usually the ranking people reference when they refer to medical schools.

-Ice

 

[CalBeE]

Originally posted by rager1
1998 Rankings
(taken from Stanford's Premed Association website)
1 Harvard University (MA)
2 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
3 University of Pennsylvania
4 Washington University (MO)
5 Yale University (CT)
6 Duke University (NC)
6 University of California San Francisco
8 Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY)
9 University of Washington
10 Stanford University (CA)
10 University of California Los Angeles
10 University of Michigan Ann Arbor
13 Cornell University (Weill) (NY)
14 Mayo Medical School (MN)
15 Baylor College of Medicine (TX)


--rager1

Sucks that Harvard is always above Hopkins when Hopkins' med school actually get more NIH funding than Harvard med...dang affiliated hospitals of Harvard

 

[exmike]

Originally posted by rager1
1998 Rankings
(taken from Stanford's Premed Association website)
1 Harvard University (MA)
2 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
3 University of Pennsylvania
4 Washington University (MO)
5 Yale University (CT)
6 Duke University (NC)
6 University of California San Francisco
8 Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY)
9 University of Washington
10 Stanford University (CA)
10 University of California Los Angeles
10 University of Michigan Ann Arbor
13 Cornell University (Weill) (NY)
14 Mayo Medical School (MN)
15 Baylor College of Medicine (TX)


--rager1

2004

1 Harvard University (MA)
2 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
Washington University in St. Louis
4 Duke University (NC)
University of Pennsylvania
6 University of California?San Francisco
7 Columbia U. College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY)
8 Stanford University (CA)
University of Michigan?Ann Arbor
10 Yale University (CT)
11 University of Washington
12 Baylor College of Medicine (TX)
Cornell University (Weill) (NY)
14 University of California?Los Angeles (Geffen)
Vanderbilt University (TN)


Looks the the top few havent changed much in six years. I'd be more interested in the change of schools from 20-50 anyways

 

[Gleevec]

Remember that there is an endogenous confounding variable of the formula change itself.

I think we all remember, at least for the ugrad rankings, the year CalTech was the #1 ugrad school in the country according to US News.

 

[rager1]

Originally posted by Gleevec
Remember that there is an endogenous confounding variable of the formula change itself.

I think we all remember, at least for the ugrad rankings, the year CalTech was the #1 ugrad school in the country according to US News.

I'm totally keeping that in mind...I'm more interested about trends, like some school obviously rising in the ranks from year to year or similar. As I recall, the first year that undergrad rankings came out in '88 or thereabouts, Stanford was ranked #1. Now while I'm of the biased opinion that Stanford is THE place to be as an undergrad, I'm sure that placing a non-Ivy school ahead of Harvard, Princeton, et al made that first list fly off the shelves.

(as an aside: I thought it was cool that Caltech got the #1 ranking that year, but I suppose that's because my best friends from high school were there at the time) 😀

--rager

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

I honestly think that the US News and World Report rankings are the best ugrad rankings simply because they take into account EVERY variable a prospective undergraduate should be concerned with (student/faculty ratio, alumni funding, SAT 25th-75th percentiles, percentage of freshman from top 10% of their high school classes, academic reputation score, acceptance rate, financial resources rank, etc). The reason the rankings change is simply because they change how each of these factors are WEIGHTED from one issue of the rankings to the next. So while academic reputation score might be weighted 25% of a given school's overall rank....it might be weighted only 10% in the next ranking...which will then shuffle the ranks of the schools.

I remember when Caltech was #1...sorta silly because of how small it is and how specialized the school is (it's a powerhouse in engineering, physics, math, etc...but a student wanting to study the social sciences or humanities definitely should not apply there). Then again, I'm a complete nut when it comes to the rankings simply because I have lots of school pride so I always follow the ugrad and graduate rankings in US News as well as the National Research Council rankings of graduate programs. I haven't really looked into the med school rankings though.

 

[ice_23]

2002

1. Harvard
2. JHU
3. WUSTL
4. UPENN
5. Duke
6. UCSF
7. Columbia
8. UMich
9. Yale
10. University of Washington
11. Cornell
11. Stanford
13. Baylor
13. UCLA
15. Mayo
16. Vandy
17. Pitt
17. UTSW

Rager, if you get enough of these, they can be posted with the trend of each school next to it. But for that, we'd need more data. 🙁

-Ice

P.S. And would this year's rankings be 2003 or 2004? (I thought it was 2003)

 

[jlee9531]

i agree with exmike...

the changes within the 20-50 schools would be much better since there just isnt much change in the top 15 anyway.

 

[ice_23]

i suppose, but it would be a heck of a lot to post! 🙂

Plus, it seems that many threads are started on schools that are on the lists provided (i.e. the cornells, vandys, columbias, yales, harvards, etc.).

-Ice

P.S. I don't know why I put down all those names as if they were plural. It's late. 🙂

 

[rager1]

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