An old post of mine:
usnews rankings are stupid. look at the methodology.
Quality Assessment (weighted by .40)
* Peer Assessment Score (.20 for the research medical school model, .25 for the primary-care medical school model)
In the fall of 2005, medical and osteopathic school deans, deans of academic affairs, and heads of internal medicine or the directors of admissions were asked to rate programs on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Survey populations were asked to rate program quality for both research and primary-care programs separately on a single survey instrument. Those individuals who did not know enough about a school 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 54 percent of those surveyed responded.
* Assessment Score by Residency Directors (.20 for the research medical school model, .15 for the primary-care medical school model)
In the fall of 2005, 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 28 percent of those surveyed for research medical schools responded. Twenty-three percent responded for primary-care.
Research Activity (weighted by .30 in the research medical school model only)
* Total Research Activity (.20) measured by the total dollar amount of National Institutes of Health research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, averaged for 2004 and 2005. An asterisk indicates schools that reported only research grants to their medical school in 2005.
* Average Research Activity Per Faculty Member (.10) measured by the dollar amount of National Institutes of Health research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals per full-time faculty member, averaged over 2004 and 2005. Both full-time basic sciences and clinical faculty were used in the faculty count. An asterisk indicates schools that reported research grants only to their medical school in 2005.
Primary-Care Rate (.30 in the primary-care medical school model only) the percentage of M.D. or D.O. school graduates entering primary-care residencies in the fields of family practice, pediatrics, and internal medicine was averaged over 2003, 2004, and 2005.
Student Selectivity (.20 in the research medical school model, .15 in the primary-care medical school model)
* Mean MCAT Score (.13 in the research medical school model, .0975 in the primary-care medical school model) the mean composite Medical College Admission Test score of the 2005 entering class.
* Mean Undergraduate GPA (.06 in the research medical school model, .045 in the primary-care medical school model) the mean undergraduate grade-point average of the 2005 entering class.
* Acceptance Rate (.01 in the research medical school model, .0075 in the primary-care medical school model) the proportion of applicants to the 2005 entering class who were offered admission.
Faculty Resources (.10 in the research medical school model, .15 in the primary-care medical school model) resources were measured as the ratio of full-time science and clinical faculty to full-time M.D. or D.O. students in 2005.
Overall Rank: Indicators were standardized about their means, and standardized scores were weighted, totaled, and rescaled so that the top school received 100; other schools received their percentage of the top score.
Specialty Rankings: The rankings are based solely on ratings by medical school deans and senior faculty from the list of schools surveyed. They each identified up to 10 schools offering the best programs in each specialty area. Those receiving the most nominations appear here.
------------> Notice that the surveys are rarely collected (which make up a staggering 40%). Notice also that many schools will have a hard time improving their rank because its not as if NIH grants can increase substantially year-to-year or a school can hire significantly more doctors (40%). Schools do have some control over their rank... ie, mcat score, acceptance rate, etc (20%).
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