Your own ranking criteria - because US News is bunk

[gsc]

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Because of the general consensus that the US News rankings are somewhat bogus, clearly inconsistent (aside from the "the most prestigious schools go at the top of research" results), and largely arbitrary in terms of which factors are used, I think it's time that applicants say what's most important to them when choosing a medical school. I'm sure this has been done before (many times), but I think now would be a good time to reexamine the issue in light of all the US News threads. Successful marketing should not determine how applicants view medical schools.

For those who are interested, here's a relevant article from the AAMC Reporter:
Rating the Rankings: Medical Education Weighs in on the U.S. News Guide to Grad Schools

By the way, this thread topic was inspired by the following excellent post:

Well, yes the ranking are horrid, but not for the reason you specifiy. As a "student of science", your bigger concern should be about outcome definition.

They are measuring the "best school". This begs the question, how do you define the best school? Their methodology, for research schools, places the emphasis on the score as:

40% peer assessment (dean surveys - which were only filled out by 56% of the deans)
30% NIH $
20% Student selectivity (65% MCAT, 30% GPA, 5% percentage accepted)
10% Ratio of faculty : students.

What you should be asking yourself is whether or not:
1) These are the correct attributes for a med school
2) These are the correct weightings for the correct attributes for a med school.

Their outcome is defined by their measurement tools. Which, as anyone worth their weight in reagents will tell you is crap.

I would submit that the definition of "best" school should have to do with quality of patient care (percentage of "successful" cases handled by graduates of each school, or something like that), or some other outcome which affects the population physicians are trying to serve.

But, as someone else already pointed out - their goal is to sell magazines, and oddly enough they've gotten the buy-in from med schools, and med students along the way. As you point out, as "students of science" we should have already known better.

So, what factors are most important to you?

Reputation among residency directors?
Student happiness?
Ability of students to to match their top choice residency programs?
Location?
NIH $ ?
Average MCAT scores?
Average GPA?
Average USMLE scores?

 

[Tra La La]

You bring up some great points.

I think it is incredibly difficult to rank schools in a manner that everyone would agree with, but here are some things I believe to be of importance in a school's desirability:

-quality of professors/teaching (hard to qualify)
-quality of life (i.e., happiness of students)
-quality of affiliated teaching hospitals
-price of attendance and average debt of graduates
-total research dollars and quality of research (the latter is especially difficult to qualify)
-number of students matching to their top choice residencies
-location
-reputation

 

[k-monger]

Research School Ranking Criteria:
10%- peer review
30%- % grads matching top choice
30%- Board Scores
10%- graduate satisfaction (surveyed maybe 5 years after graduation; will cause a lag, but would be more reflective and accurate)
20%- research funding (including NIH and all other sources)

Primary Care School Ranking Criteria:
15%- peer review
35%- % grads matching top choice
35%- Board Scores
15%- graduate satisfaction (surveyed maybe 5 years after graduation; will cause a lag, but would be more reflective and accurate)

Also, all schools would be ranked--not just the top 50.

I'd trust this methodology.

 

[opinionkitten]

i felt like the "selectivity" rank was the best tool as far as the ranks go. "where can i get in" seems to be the first big question people want these ranks to answer. location seems to me to be the top of the list of factors where people decide on schools and this is entirely subjective. even "where can i get in" is really hard to gauge with the acceptance rates so low and the randomness weve all seen in these things.

i think the "reputation score" being 40% is outlandish. there seem to be easier and less problematic ways of quantifying this. residency directors come to mind, board scores, ect.

i wonder why nobody else tries to make these rankings. it cant be that difficult, people universally think these rankings suck and need to be done better, and there is clearly a market for it. any venture capitalist premeds wanna put up some dough and get SDN in the game?

 

[Crake]

Rankings in order of importance:

1.) Whoever accepts me
2.) everyone else

 

[Biscuit799]

Reseach Schools:
-total grant funding (not just NIH)
-peer review
-article review board survey
-USMLE scores
-% of graduates matching at top choice residency
-% of graduates working in academia

Primary Care:
-Patient satisfaction surveys
-peer review
-residency director survey
-USMLE scores
-% of graduates matching at top choice residency
-% of graduates in a primary care field

 

[PBMaxx]

Rankings in order of importance:

1.) Whoever accepts me
2.) everyone else

Seconded.

 

[amnesia]

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[DrThom]

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[Haybrant]

This is how my 12 year old brother types messages on the internet...

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[DrThom]

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[MedicineBird]

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[drguy22]

Research School Ranking Criteria:
10%- peer review
30%- % grads matching top choice
30%- Board Scores
10%- graduate satisfaction (surveyed maybe 5 years after graduation; will cause a lag, but would be more reflective and accurate)
20%- research funding (including NIH and all other sources)

Primary Care School Ranking Criteria:
15%- peer review
35%- % grads matching top choice
35%- Board Scores
15%- graduate satisfaction (surveyed maybe 5 years after graduation; will cause a lag, but would be more reflective and accurate)

Also, all schools would be ranked--not just the top 50.

I'd trust this methodology.

i agree wit u🙂 good job.

 

[virilep]

your avatar is the same as my 10 year old brothers'

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