Why are some schools not ranked?

[robrobbberts]

For instance, Rush University or Tulane. There seems to be many schools not ranked at all. At least with U.S. News.

Is there another ranking system out there?

Would it be better to go to a ranked school, than an un-ranked school?

For instance, how exactly does Rush University compare with the likes of other Chicago schools, or even schools like Boston University?

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[schrizto]

I think you are too concerned with rankings... they're not as important for medical schools as they are for say, law or business schools.

 

[mfrizzo3]

Because they are full of ***** like myself. Wanna learn some medicine....aw heehaw!?!?

 

[thamsenman]

Because they dont' believe in surcumbing to the idiocy of USNews? I dunno, I didn't get into any of those schools.

 

[robrobbberts]

I think you are too concerned with rankings... they're not as important for medical schools as they are for say, law or business schools.

I'm just trying to compare the schools that I have been accepted to. It's quite difficult since I liked all of these schools. I am just trying to figure out why some of them are not ranked, and if it is a bad sign.

 

[deuce924]

I'm just trying to compare school that I have been accepted into. It's quite difficult since I liked all of these schools. I am just trying to figure out why some of them are not ranked, and if it is a bad sign.

A lot of those ranking are based on research dollars and other things that will probably not have an effect on you as a medical student. In my opinion, if you are torn between 2 schools pick the cheaper one.

 

[ThaliaNox]

Because nobody wants to be pinned as "the lowest ranked school in the country" or even "the bottom quarter." Ranking lists are silly for medical schools because honestly, besides arguably the "top schools" everyone else is essentially equal. What's the real difference between a theoretical ranking of 67 out of 120 versus 79 out of 120? Not much in reality, so schools have made the agreement to just not go there.

 

[metallica81788]

Some schools don't even let USNews view their stuff and rank them.

 

[Sammich117]

One thing I've never gotten is that they have the "research" ranking and "primary care" ranking... Research seems to be the go to rank that people talk about, but I don't get why.

 

[d1ony5u5]

I think it is basically for the reason Metallica cited. They don't get ranked because they don't grant access/send the necessary information to U.S. News...

This doesn't mean they are bad schools. Medschool rankings are very imperfect. There aren't any measures that can separate schools reliably simply because the success of alumni (which is the intuitive definition of "good" schools) depends to a large extend on their own efforts.

 

[Old Grunt]

I'm just trying to compare school that I have been accepted to. It's quite difficult since I liked all of these schools. I am just trying to figure out why some of them are not ranked, and if it is a bad sign.

I think Tulane does just fine.

The US News ranking system (both graduate and undergraduate) is just a giant finger drill anyways.

"Wow, look. Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown are #1 this year for the 75th year in a row!"

 

[45408]

Because no ranking is better than the lowest ranking. USN&WR isn't going to make a list of "The worst med schools in the country," because it would make a lot of people really angry, and it wouldn't really help anyone.

 

[morning]

Have you actually peeked at the ranking methodology?

http://www.usnews.com/articles/educ...4/22/medical-school-rankings-methodology.html

It's a rather illuminating view into the BS that rules so many pre-meds' lives unnecessarily. 40% of a program's ranking score is based on surveys sent to the program's staff, the majority of whom do not even respond. Some of it is even based on the class's average MCAT and GPA. If your MCAT/GPA is lower than the average, congratulations, you're reducing your school's USNews score just a teensy bit.

The primary care score is based not on any objective indicators of how well a school prepares future primary care physicians. It is based on how many students go into primary care. Likewise, the research score is not based on how innovative the research is - it is based on how much reserch money is granted.

USNews is useless; the only people who haven't gotten the memo are pre-meds.

 

[Moonglow]

Both Rush and Tulane have been ranked in the past by several publications, including USNews & World Report. Tulane was affected by Katrina and may not be currently ranked as a result. Rush is still ranked on several lists, usually around 70-80.

 

[metallica81788]

Because they dont' believe in surcumbing to the idiocy of USNews? I dunno, I didn't get into any of those schools.

Just noticed this.

 

[schrizto]

"Wow, look. Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown are #1 this year for the 75th year in a row!"

Um, Brown? It's never been #1 in any ranking on US News ever IIRC.

 

[JJMrK]

Have you actually peeked at the ranking methodology?

http://www.usnews.com/articles/educ...4/22/medical-school-rankings-methodology.html

It's a rather illuminating view into the BS that rules so many pre-meds' lives unnecessarily. 40% of a program's ranking score is based on surveys sent to the program's staff, the majority of whom do not even respond. Some of it is even based on the class's average MCAT and GPA. If your MCAT/GPA is lower than the average, congratulations, you're reducing your school's USNews score just a teensy bit.

The primary care score is based not on any objective indicators of how well a school prepares future primary care physicians. It is based on how many students go into primary care. Likewise, the research score is not based on how innovative the research is - it is based on how much reserch money is granted.

USNews is useless; the only people who haven't gotten the memo are pre-meds.

It's only useless if you don't care about any of the data that were used to build the rankings. If you don't, fine. Some people do.

It seems like there are people who say, "ZOMG I must go to a top 20," and then others who say, "Rankings are worth less than the rug I wipe my shoes on." There is a middle ground: The rankings show what they show. If you find them interesting, by all means take a look. If you don't, fine.

I'm not saying that US News rankings are terribly important, or that anyone should use them to determine which school to attend. But if you are interested in the data used to compile them, by all means have a look.

 

[Law2Doc]

One thing I've never gotten is that they have the "research" ranking and "primary care" ranking... Research seems to be the go to rank that people talk about, but I don't get why.

Simple. Research rankings are driven by the NIH funding a program gets. Well funded programs are prestigious and have more money to spend on infrastructure, labs etc, and sometimes attract the Nobel winners and the like. Whether this trickles down to any effect for med students is unlikely, however it does give folks a brand name to brag about to family on Thanksgiving. Primary care rankings are driven heavilly by the percentage of folks who go into primary care (not based on the quality of their training). Since primary care fields are largely noncompetitive, this is a dubious distinction, and perhaps at some places really measures the percentage of folks who didn't have other choices. (I'm not bashing primary care here but it's undeniable that these fields tend to be less competitive). Also a number of DO schools are at the top of the primary care list, over places most agree are top 10 type brand name programs, so that whole ranking is not looked at highly on pre-ALLO. So if you are going to use US News rankings use the research rankings because you can at least make a straight faced argument that this one measures SOMETHING, albeit not necessarilly something that will trickle down to med students. Primary care probably doesn't.

As mentioned the unranked schools generally have chosen not to participate, usually because they don't have a ton of NIH funding and don't want to end up in the lower portion of a ranking system. I wouldn't read any more into it than that. It's not like undergrad where the ranking systems is really trying to rank the "best" with any criteria that actually matter. Folks on pre-allo seize onto ranking systems because they want to go to the best place they can, but really it doesn't matter that much. There aren't that many allo med schools (compared to undergrad, law schools, etc) and all are quite good. You can get into any specialty from any of them. It's going to be an individual journey once you get in, not school driven. It's not like business school where only the top 15 or so can get Wall Street jobs -- you do well from any of these schools if you work hard (and you will).

 

[Old Grunt]

Um, Brown? It's never been #1 in any ranking on US News ever IIRC.

And that's about how much attention I pay to the rankings system.