After a national controversy and a three-week delay, U.S. News & World Report has released its best medical schools ranking for 2024.
The publication's famed rankings came under scrutiny this year, with more than a dozen top-tier schools withdrawing from the process. Those institutions — including Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia — will no longer submit data for consideration beginning next year. However, U.S. News can and will still rank them using publicly available data.
The exodus represents a rejection of elitism and "one-size-fits-all" scoring systems; universities allege the rankings hinder diversity measures and uncenter students' experiences.
In response, the publication made some tweaks to this year's methodology. In the research list, for example, it doubled the weight of total federal research activity and added two indicators for National Institutes of Health research grants. Other criteria include peer and residency assessment scores, student selectivity and faculty resources.
The rankings are based on 194 medical and osteopathic schools fully accredited in 2023 by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or the American Osteopathic Association that responded to a survey and provided data to U.S. News. Of the respondents, 130 were ranked.
Top 12 medical schools for research, including ties:
1. Harvard University (Boston)
2. Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)
3. University of Pennsylvania — Perelman (Philadelphia)
4. Columbia University (New York City)
5 (tie). Duke University (Durham, N.C.)
5 (tie). Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)
5 (tie). University of California-San Francisco
5 (tie.) Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenn.)
5 (tie). Washington University in St. Louis
10 (tie). Cornell University — Weill (New York City)
10 (tie). New York University — Grossman (New York City)
10 (tie). Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
Top 12 medical schools for primary care, including ties:
1. University of Washington (Seattle)
2. University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
3. Oregon Health and Science University (Portland)
4. University of New Mexico (Albuquerque)
5. University of California-San Francisco
6. University of California-Davis
7. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
8 (tie). University of Colorado (Aurora)
8 (tie). University of Nebraska Medical Center (Omaha)
10. University of California-Los Angeles
11 (tie). University of Pittsburgh
11 (tie). University of North Texas Health Science Center (Fort Worth)
To view the full rankings and methodology, click here.