Which medical school ranking website should I pay attention to?

[redrosesfi]

Which medical school ranking website should I pay attention to? US News?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[beattheprocess]

None of them

 

[jessicajonesharvard]

Usnews is reliable

 

[meronebib]

The most well known is USNews. But don't rely too much on it.

 

[ciestar]

None of these numbers should heavily influence your decision. There are easily 30 schools in the “top 20”

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

Bill Nye the science guy.

 

[capriccio]

Use MSAR and LizzyM/Wedgedawg calculator to make school lists.

For decision time, you gotta look at the full package: financials, location, resources, program fit, student body, match lists, support network, etc. and decide what's best. Rankings shouldn't be the major influencing factor, and small fluctuations don't mean too much.

 

[getdown]

mine.

 

[Rachapkis]

The one in your head that tells you whether you fit in at a particular school or not.

 

[Goro]

Which medical school ranking website should I pay attention to? US News?

None of them. The only people who give weight to US Snooze are pre-meds and med school deans.

 

[Goro]

Usnews is reliable

By whose criteria???

 

[jessicajonesharvard]

By whose criteria???

USNEWS uses objective measurements to rank medical school. Is it perfect? Probably not. However, it gives a solid idea of what schools are top tier, mid tier, and bottom tier. You can ignore ranking all you want but in the end, ranking (aka reputation) plays a huge part in choosing medical schools/residencies/fellowships/etc because it often reflects the quality of education (funding, faculties, research, etc). Why do you think people choose Mayo (a dressing) over Brown University (an "IVY")?

See below for the criteria.

"Research Activity (weighted by 0.40 in the research medical school model only, not used in the primary care medical school ranking model)

This year based on recommendations from medical school deans, U.S. News based the medical school research activity indicators solely on National Institutes of Health, or NIH, funding. NIH funding is viewed as the most verifiable and credible measure of medical school research. As a result, based on these suggestion from medical school deans, U.S. News dropped four indicators of research activity conducted at medical schools: total non-NIH federal research activity, average non-NIH federal research activity per faculty member, total nonfederal research activity and average nonfederal research activity per faculty member. Each of these indicators was used in last year's ranking and each was weighted at 0.025. In this year's research medical school model, research activity in total continues to be weighted at 0.40, unchanged from last year.

• Total NIH research activity (0.25, an increase from 0.15 last year): This is measured by the total dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, averaged for 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables on usnews.com indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

• Average NIH research activity per faculty member (0.15): This is measured by the dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals per total full-time faculty member as reported by medical schools to the American Association of Medical Colleges, averaged over 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

Primary Care Rate (0.30 in the primary care medical school model only; not used in research medical school ranking model)

The percentage of a school's M.D. or D.O. graduates entering primary care residencies in the fields of family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine was averaged over 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Student Selectivity (0.20 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model)

• Median MCAT total score (0.13 in the research medical school model; 0.0975 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median total Medical College Admission Test score of the 2018 entering class. For the third consecutive year, both the new MCAT that was implemented starting in April 2015 and the old MCAT were used in the rankings to compute the MCAT score indicator.

For both MCAT measures used in the ranking calculations, the median total scores for both the new and old versions were first converted to a common percentile scale and weighted by the proportion of the fall 2018 entering class who reported each test.

On usnews.com, only users with a U.S. News Medical School Compass subscription can view the new and old MCAT scores.

• Median undergraduate GPA (0.06 in the research medical school model; 0.045 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median undergraduate GPA of the 2018 entering class.

• Acceptance rate (0.01 in the research medical school model; 0.0075 in the primary care medical school model): This is the proportion of applicants for the 2018 entering class who were offered admission.

Faculty resources (0.10 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model): Faculty resources were measured as the ratio of full-time faculty to full-time M.D. or D.O. students in 2018. This year for the first time based on recommendations from medical school deans who wanted to ensure accurate and standardized reporting of faculty counts, U.S. News asked medical schools to report the same total full-time medical school faculty counts that they report annually to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the medical school accrediting body and the same information that is also provided to the American Association of Medical Colleges.

For the third consecutive year, U.S. News used a logarithmic transformation of the original value for the faculty-student ratio since it had a skewed distribution. This logarithmic manipulation rescaled the data and allowed for a more normalized and uniform spread of values across the indicator.

After this indicator was normalized using a log value, its indicator z-score was calculated from the log values. In statistics, a z-score is a standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean of that variable. This transformation of the data is essential when combining diverse information into a single ranking because it allows for fair comparisons between the different types of data."

 

[Gilakend]

USNEWS uses objective measurements to rank medical school. Is it perfect? Probably not. However, it gives a solid idea of what schools are top tier, mid tier, and bottom tier. You can ignore ranking all you want but in the end, ranking (aka reputation) plays a huge part in choosing medical schools/residencies/fellowships/etc because it often reflects the quality of education (funding, faculties, research, etc). Why do you think people choose Mayo (a dressing) over Brown University (an "IVY")?

See below for the criteria.

"Research Activity (weighted by 0.40 in the research medical school model only, not used in the primary care medical school ranking model)

This year based on recommendations from medical school deans, U.S. News based the medical school research activity indicators solely on National Institutes of Health, or NIH, funding. NIH funding is viewed as the most verifiable and credible measure of medical school research. As a result, based on these suggestion from medical school deans, U.S. News dropped four indicators of research activity conducted at medical schools: total non-NIH federal research activity, average non-NIH federal research activity per faculty member, total nonfederal research activity and average nonfederal research activity per faculty member. Each of these indicators was used in last year's ranking and each was weighted at 0.025. In this year's research medical school model, research activity in total continues to be weighted at 0.40, unchanged from last year.

• Total NIH research activity (0.25, an increase from 0.15 last year): This is measured by the total dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, averaged for 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables on usnews.com indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

• Average NIH research activity per faculty member (0.15): This is measured by the dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals per total full-time faculty member as reported by medical schools to the American Association of Medical Colleges, averaged over 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

Primary Care Rate (0.30 in the primary care medical school model only; not used in research medical school ranking model)

The percentage of a school's M.D. or D.O. graduates entering primary care residencies in the fields of family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine was averaged over 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Student Selectivity (0.20 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model)

• Median MCAT total score (0.13 in the research medical school model; 0.0975 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median total Medical College Admission Test score of the 2018 entering class. For the third consecutive year, both the new MCAT that was implemented starting in April 2015 and the old MCAT were used in the rankings to compute the MCAT score indicator.

For both MCAT measures used in the ranking calculations, the median total scores for both the new and old versions were first converted to a common percentile scale and weighted by the proportion of the fall 2018 entering class who reported each test.

On usnews.com, only users with a U.S. News Medical School Compass subscription can view the new and old MCAT scores.

• Median undergraduate GPA (0.06 in the research medical school model; 0.045 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median undergraduate GPA of the 2018 entering class.

• Acceptance rate (0.01 in the research medical school model; 0.0075 in the primary care medical school model): This is the proportion of applicants for the 2018 entering class who were offered admission.

Faculty resources (0.10 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model): Faculty resources were measured as the ratio of full-time faculty to full-time M.D. or D.O. students in 2018. This year for the first time based on recommendations from medical school deans who wanted to ensure accurate and standardized reporting of faculty counts, U.S. News asked medical schools to report the same total full-time medical school faculty counts that they report annually to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the medical school accrediting body and the same information that is also provided to the American Association of Medical Colleges.

For the third consecutive year, U.S. News used a logarithmic transformation of the original value for the faculty-student ratio since it had a skewed distribution. This logarithmic manipulation rescaled the data and allowed for a more normalized and uniform spread of values across the indicator.

After this indicator was normalized using a log value, its indicator z-score was calculated from the log values. In statistics, a z-score is a standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean of that variable. This transformation of the data is essential when combining diverse information into a single ranking because it allows for fair comparisons between the different types of data."

If reputation is what matter why go by USNews research rankings when we have USNews residency director rankings?
Any established US MD school will provide you an excellent education. People who choose one school over another based on USNews rankings have some seriously flawed rationale imo.

 

[Kracin]

I pay attention to whichever one ranks my school the best

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

USNEWS uses objective measurements to rank medical school. Is it perfect? Probably not. However, it gives a solid idea of what schools are top tier, mid tier, and bottom tier. You can ignore ranking all you want but in the end, ranking (aka reputation) plays a huge part in choosing medical schools/residencies/fellowships/etc because it often reflects the quality of education (funding, faculties, research, etc). Why do you think people choose Mayo (a dressing) over Brown University (an "IVY")?

See below for the criteria.

"Research Activity (weighted by 0.40 in the research medical school model only, not used in the primary care medical school ranking model)

This year based on recommendations from medical school deans, U.S. News based the medical school research activity indicators solely on National Institutes of Health, or NIH, funding. NIH funding is viewed as the most verifiable and credible measure of medical school research. As a result, based on these suggestion from medical school deans, U.S. News dropped four indicators of research activity conducted at medical schools: total non-NIH federal research activity, average non-NIH federal research activity per faculty member, total nonfederal research activity and average nonfederal research activity per faculty member. Each of these indicators was used in last year's ranking and each was weighted at 0.025. In this year's research medical school model, research activity in total continues to be weighted at 0.40, unchanged from last year.

• Total NIH research activity (0.25, an increase from 0.15 last year): This is measured by the total dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, averaged for 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables on usnews.com indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

• Average NIH research activity per faculty member (0.15): This is measured by the dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals per total full-time faculty member as reported by medical schools to the American Association of Medical Colleges, averaged over 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

Primary Care Rate (0.30 in the primary care medical school model only; not used in research medical school ranking model)

The percentage of a school's M.D. or D.O. graduates entering primary care residencies in the fields of family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine was averaged over 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Student Selectivity (0.20 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model)

• Median MCAT total score (0.13 in the research medical school model; 0.0975 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median total Medical College Admission Test score of the 2018 entering class. For the third consecutive year, both the new MCAT that was implemented starting in April 2015 and the old MCAT were used in the rankings to compute the MCAT score indicator.

For both MCAT measures used in the ranking calculations, the median total scores for both the new and old versions were first converted to a common percentile scale and weighted by the proportion of the fall 2018 entering class who reported each test.

On usnews.com, only users with a U.S. News Medical School Compass subscription can view the new and old MCAT scores.

• Median undergraduate GPA (0.06 in the research medical school model; 0.045 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median undergraduate GPA of the 2018 entering class.

• Acceptance rate (0.01 in the research medical school model; 0.0075 in the primary care medical school model): This is the proportion of applicants for the 2018 entering class who were offered admission.

Faculty resources (0.10 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model): Faculty resources were measured as the ratio of full-time faculty to full-time M.D. or D.O. students in 2018. This year for the first time based on recommendations from medical school deans who wanted to ensure accurate and standardized reporting of faculty counts, U.S. News asked medical schools to report the same total full-time medical school faculty counts that they report annually to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the medical school accrediting body and the same information that is also provided to the American Association of Medical Colleges.

For the third consecutive year, U.S. News used a logarithmic transformation of the original value for the faculty-student ratio since it had a skewed distribution. This logarithmic manipulation rescaled the data and allowed for a more normalized and uniform spread of values across the indicator.

After this indicator was normalized using a log value, its indicator z-score was calculated from the log values. In statistics, a z-score is a standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean of that variable. This transformation of the data is essential when combining diverse information into a single ranking because it allows for fair comparisons between the different types of data."

Just because a list was generated using objective data doesn’t mean it’s the right data to base a decision on or measures an outcome of interest. Anybody can come up with variables and a simple algorithm to rank things, but without good outcome data (long-term data that nobody, especially usnews, has) to test their algorithms, it’s worthless. Maybe at best the variables they include in their ranking formula could be considered surrogate outcomes in and of themselves for “good Med school”, but anybody who reads any clinical literature knows surrogate outcomes are often effectively worthless at measuring the real outcome we care about (and I can’t see why they would be any better for ranking schools without a clear outcome of interest).

Point: rankings for med school without a goal in mind are pointless other than for ego. You need an outcome of interest before you rank things. You want to be in NYC for residency, well then the nyc Med schools are probably best given the leg up you receive being at an Institution as a home Med student. You want to go into startups, well Stanford has a hell of a track record of setting people up to do that, but likely you’re looking at schools on the coasts. You want to go into publishing, well JAMA offices are in Chicago, and Harvard gives you the opportunity to network with people who have influence at NEJM, so your ranking maybe prioritizes those cities. You want to be a good clinician, honestly go to any us school because it’ll be more about what you put into it.

What data would be needed to really rank schools? Things like patient mortality rate by docs’ Med schools (case-mix adjusted, etc), or avg number of R01 grants received (as a percent of those that applied) within 10 years of graduating, etc. Maybe the best outcome would be some standardized measure of happiness or fulfillment during and after medical school. As far as I know, that kind of outcome data doesn’t readily exist, so I mean usnews is basically a training algorithm for “best med school” that never has to prove itself on a testing dataset...

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

None of them. The only people who give weight to US Snooze are pre-meds and med school deans.

@Goro - I thought parents (like me) give more weight to US snooze ;-)

 

[deleted962973]

USNEWS uses objective measurements to rank medical school. Is it perfect? Probably not. However, it gives a solid idea of what schools are top tier, mid tier, and bottom tier. You can ignore ranking all you want but in the end, ranking (aka reputation) plays a huge part in choosing medical schools/residencies/fellowships/etc because it often reflects the quality of education (funding, faculties, research, etc). Why do you think people choose Mayo (a dressing) over Brown University (an "IVY")?

See below for the criteria.

"Research Activity (weighted by 0.40 in the research medical school model only, not used in the primary care medical school ranking model)

This year based on recommendations from medical school deans, U.S. News based the medical school research activity indicators solely on National Institutes of Health, or NIH, funding. NIH funding is viewed as the most verifiable and credible measure of medical school research. As a result, based on these suggestion from medical school deans, U.S. News dropped four indicators of research activity conducted at medical schools: total non-NIH federal research activity, average non-NIH federal research activity per faculty member, total nonfederal research activity and average nonfederal research activity per faculty member. Each of these indicators was used in last year's ranking and each was weighted at 0.025. In this year's research medical school model, research activity in total continues to be weighted at 0.40, unchanged from last year.

• Total NIH research activity (0.25, an increase from 0.15 last year): This is measured by the total dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, averaged for 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables on usnews.com indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

• Average NIH research activity per faculty member (0.15): This is measured by the dollar amount of NIH research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals per total full-time faculty member as reported by medical schools to the American Association of Medical Colleges, averaged over 2017 and 2018. An asterisk next to this data point in the rankings tables indicates that the medical school did not include grants to any affiliated hospitals in its 2018 total.

Primary Care Rate (0.30 in the primary care medical school model only; not used in research medical school ranking model)

The percentage of a school's M.D. or D.O. graduates entering primary care residencies in the fields of family practice, pediatrics and internal medicine was averaged over 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Student Selectivity (0.20 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model)

• Median MCAT total score (0.13 in the research medical school model; 0.0975 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median total Medical College Admission Test score of the 2018 entering class. For the third consecutive year, both the new MCAT that was implemented starting in April 2015 and the old MCAT were used in the rankings to compute the MCAT score indicator.

For both MCAT measures used in the ranking calculations, the median total scores for both the new and old versions were first converted to a common percentile scale and weighted by the proportion of the fall 2018 entering class who reported each test.

On usnews.com, only users with a U.S. News Medical School Compass subscription can view the new and old MCAT scores.

• Median undergraduate GPA (0.06 in the research medical school model; 0.045 in the primary care medical school model): This is the median undergraduate GPA of the 2018 entering class.

• Acceptance rate (0.01 in the research medical school model; 0.0075 in the primary care medical school model): This is the proportion of applicants for the 2018 entering class who were offered admission.

Faculty resources (0.10 in the research medical school model; 0.15 in the primary care medical school model): Faculty resources were measured as the ratio of full-time faculty to full-time M.D. or D.O. students in 2018. This year for the first time based on recommendations from medical school deans who wanted to ensure accurate and standardized reporting of faculty counts, U.S. News asked medical schools to report the same total full-time medical school faculty counts that they report annually to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the medical school accrediting body and the same information that is also provided to the American Association of Medical Colleges.

For the third consecutive year, U.S. News used a logarithmic transformation of the original value for the faculty-student ratio since it had a skewed distribution. This logarithmic manipulation rescaled the data and allowed for a more normalized and uniform spread of values across the indicator.

After this indicator was normalized using a log value, its indicator z-score was calculated from the log values. In statistics, a z-score is a standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean of that variable. This transformation of the data is essential when combining diverse information into a single ranking because it allows for fair comparisons between the different types of data."

In all honesty, I’ve never been able to tell if your posts are serious or if you’re just a supremely dedicated troll. What’s this about salad dressing?

 

[aldol16]

If you must use one, I would say look for the residency director rankings. I like to think of it as an indicator (with its flaws) of how well prepared students have been historically from the med school. Well trained students -> good residency director impression.

Obviously the impact on your future career cannot be predicted from such rankings, as that depends on which specialty you go into and how strong your home department is in that specialty.