Why is Tulane not in the US news top 50?

[DrM]

I noticed that Tulane is not ranked amongst the US news top 50 (primary care or research). Does anybody know if this is simply because they did not respond to the US news survey, or are they not competitive enough?

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[applejuice1979]

I don't understand the listings either. Apparently physicians are the main contributors to the survey, so maybe none of those polled are familiar with Tulane?!?

 

[::Seabass::]

they don't return the surveys sent by USNews to the schools which contains some info used to rank, so they can't be ranked.

 

[aquaboy]

From what I know Tulane is not a big recipient of NIH funding because they privately fund what research they do there. NIH funding plays a huge role in how a school is ranked. Tulane is more interested in providing a great clinical env't for its students and doesn't do a ton of research. If you ask me the US news ranking is bogus and you shouldn't base your choice of a school solely on their rankings.

 

[laviddee]

i remember doing some searches back on tulane through sdn and i remember tulane students saying that last year was the 1st year that they did participate in the usnews surveys. but even so, they didn't finish in the top 50.

but i know that students there love it! of the various places i interviewed at, students at tulane seemed to be the happiest or most excited about their education... those kind of factors can't be measured in a us news survey.

plus i dont think that tulane really cares about board scores as much.. they are known for training great clniicians... i even heard that tulane is the only school that doesn't require passing the boards in order to graduate with an md.
so if the students don't do that well on the boards- that may hurt them in the rankings as well.

 

[ny skindoc]

I agree with above.Research funding is a powerful determinant of rank in US news.Is is not correlated with the quality of the medical education.The residency match lists for Tulane are top notch.So this fact is recognized by residency directors.

 

[AegisZero]

I think we have to give US News some credit. They are ranking RESEARCH institutions, and thus NIH funding is a huge aspect of the quality of research. The fact that everyone uses the research rankings to signify the overall quality of the med school is another question altogether.

 

[Random Access]

Originally posted by ny skindoc
I agree with above.Research funding is a powerful determinant of rank in US news.Is is not correlated with the quality of the medical education.The residency match lists for Tulane are top notch.So this fact is recognized by residency directors.

While I agree that research funding isn't necessarily correlated with the quality of education at a school, what do you suggest they use? You have to quantify it some how. As Aegis mentioned, if they're ranking research programs, it does seem rather appropriate to consider NIH funding.

 

[hobbes007]

it's not in the ranking because Dr. Pisano, the dean, doesn't believe or agree with how they rank schools...so he refuses to comply with him..he told us that at the interview...

 

[AegisZero]

Well, most schools don't even submit all their data. I don't know how they completely refuse to take part in the survey as US News can access most their data from MSAR or whatnot.

Either way, most schools don't believe in the rankings system, but to maintain their stature end up having to comply. Maybe Tulane felt the cost of compliance and having a significantly lower ranking was worse than not being ranked at all.

 

[WISC-ite]

Last year on SDN there was a similar thread. A fellow SDNer discussed an article that is worth a read.

America's Best Medical Schools: A Critique of the U.S. News & World Report Rankings. Academic Medicine. Vol 76 No. 10/ October 2001.

Also, in regards to the NIH funding....I personally think it is a poor indicator. The reason being that most schools have a ton of outside funding that is non-NIH (i.e. Mayo has over 250 million in private donations and yet US News doesn't count that).

This is a bonafide peer-reviewed research publication and it looks at the statistical methods that US news uses. The Abstract is as follows.
------------------------------

Rankings of American medical schools published annually by the news magazine U.S. News and World Report are widely used to judge the quality of the schools and their programs. The authors describe and then critique the rankings on methodologic and conceptual grounds, arguing that the annual U.S. News medical school evaluation fall short in both areas. Three catagories of program quality indicators different from those used by U.S. News are presented as alternative ways to judge medical schools.

The authors conclude that the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of American medical schools are ill-conceived; are unscientific; are conducted poorly; ignore medical school accreditation; judge medical school quality from a narrow, elitist perspective; and do not consider social and professional outcomes in program quality calculations. The medical school rankings have no practical value and fail to meet standards of journalistic ethics.

 

[laviddee]

and as simulD wrote as a tulane med student:

"As far as I know, as a Tulane student, we did do the USNews thing, and we didn't make it on the list. Frankly, most people don't give two s--ts either way. We're here, and we're not leaving, and most of us like it here, anyway."

 

[Yogi Bear]

if anyone has access to lexis-nexis, you can search for the old rankings. i did this awhile ago and it only works if you're at a university network w/ access to lexis nexis. i think u go to the "guided search" option, selecting magazines, and typing in "best graduate schools" and put the dates form 1990-1995.

i remember that rankings had roughly the same schools then and now, so i wonder if the usnews people actually conduct the survey or just change positions of a couple of schools each year. it interesting that ucsf had the highest avg mcat for several years in the early 90s at around 12.0.

 

[OneStrongBro]

Because they are NOT.

 

[UCLA2000]

Tulane chooses not to take part in the US news survey because they fund most of their research privately (rather than with NIH funding).

The Gourman report ranks Tulane in the top 20. (I believe it was like 16 or 14 last year?)

It's a great school.

 

[UCLA2000]

Originally posted by laviddee
and as simulD wrote as a tulane med student:

"As far as I know, as a Tulane student, we did do the USNews thing, and we didn't make it on the list. Frankly, most people don't give two s--ts either way. We're here, and we're not leaving, and most of us like it here, anyway."

He's wrong. They did NOT participate.