Natalia Chi
The University of Chicago’s Pritzker College of Medicine will no longer participate in US News & World Report’s ranking of medical schools, joining a growing list of institutions that refuse to rank.
Chicago Medical School leaders have decided to no longer submit data to U.S. News to help the publication rank institutions. and use the results of those surveys and other information to rank the schools.
In a memo sent to the medical school community Thursday night, the leaders said the decision was based on many factors, but “our overriding concern is addressing inequalities in medical school education. , to reduce it,” he said.
“This decision addresses the inequity perpetuated by the misuse of metrics that current methodologies fail to capture the quality or outcome of medical education for those who need these data most: applicants for medical school. It is our judgment that it causes deep concern,” he said. Mark Anderson, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Dr. Vineet Arora, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker College of Medicine, are in the note.
They wrote that aspiring medical students deserve “transparent, meaningful, and usable data that reflects both the quality of their educational experience and their graduation outcomes.” They said U.S. News rankings don’t provide that, and the medical school shares “important information” on its admissions website.
They said they wrote to the editors of U.S. News, asking them to convene stakeholders to discuss how to better measure and report on medical schools.
The University of Chicago’s decision follows similar decisions by medical schools across the country in recent weeks, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.
Locally, other Illinois medical schools are taking different decisions amid controversy.
Rush University’s School of Medicine will continue to participate in the rankings for now, Rush said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the medical school at the Rosalind Franklin College of Medicine and Science in Chicago is withdrawing from the ranking system. decided to stop responding to the survey.
“I learned more about how flawed their methodology was and was really concerned that this wasn’t what we wanted to be a part of,” Chatterjee said. but what I am trying to teach my students is cooperation, not competition…which is facilitated by this sort of ranking system that makes one institution look like it is better than another. not.”
Loyola University’s medical school has not submitted data for rankings in several years, a spokeswoman said.
US News ranked Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine 17th for research and University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine 20th for research among Illinois medical schools. In the study, the University of Illinois medical school ranked him 56th and Rush’s school ranked him 68th. Loyola’s medical school was not ranked.
US News also has another ranking, which evaluates medical schools on their ability to train primary care physicians. The University of Chicago medical school ranked 30th, Northwestern University 43rd, University of Illinois 61st, and Rush 71st.
Harvard Medical School announced on January 17 that it will be removed from the rankings. Harvard University was rated the #1 medical school in the nation in 2022 by a study by US News.
In a letter at the time, Harvard Medical School Dean George Daley said, “Rankings reflect our high aspirations for educational excellence, graduate readiness, and compassionate and equitable patient care that we seek to foster in our medical education programs. It cannot be reflected in anything meaningful.”
“An unintended consequence of rankings is that institutions report misleading or inaccurate data, set policies to increase rankings rather than for more noble ends, and help students in need of financial assistance. Diverting financial aid from high-scoring students or creating malicious incentives to provide the means to maximize ranking criteria,” Daily wrote.
When Harvard University announced its decision earlier this month, Eric Gertler, executive chairman and CEO of US News & World Report, said in a statement: With competitive, less transparent, and increasingly expensive tuition, we believe that students have the right to access all the data and information they need to make the right decisions. ”
Gertler says ranking is just one factor in deciding which medical school a student will attend. “In fact, millions of prospective students visit his U.S. News medical school rankings each year because it provides students with valuable data and solutions to aid them in that process,” he said. I was.
The wave of dropouts follows a similar revolt in recent months by law schools across the country against US News’ law school rankings.
US News said in a letter to law school deans earlier this month that it would change the way it ranks law schools. , passing the bar exam, employment record, etc.
US News says it will continue to use publicly available data to rank law schools regardless of whether they respond to the annual survey. However, we plan to release more detailed information about the schools that responded to the survey.
