Harvard Pulls Out of Med School Rankings - Medpage Today

Harvard Medical School -- a fixture astatine the top of the yearly "Best Medical Schools" lists from U.S. News & World Report -- said Tuesday that it volition nary longer taxable information and enactment successful the rankings.

The announcement came successful the signifier of a public letter to members of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine assemblage from George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, dean of the module of medicine. This determination follows akin withdrawals from the U.S. News rankings by a radical of the nation's apical instrumentality schools.

"Educational leaders person agelong criticized the methodology utilized by [U.S. News] to measure and fertile aesculapian schools," Daley wrote successful his letter. "However, my concerns and the perspectives I person heard from others are much philosophical than methodological, and remainder connected the principled content that rankings cannot meaningfully bespeak the precocious aspirations for acquisition excellence, postgraduate preparedness, and compassionate and equitable diligent attraction that we strive to foster successful our aesculapian acquisition programs."

Daley noted that the "unintended consequences" of rankings are that they "create perverse incentives for institutions to study misleading oregon inaccurate data, acceptable policies to boost rankings alternatively than nobler objectives, oregon divert fiscal assistance from students with fiscal request to high-scoring students with means successful bid to maximize ranking criteria."

"Ultimately," helium wrote, "the suitability of immoderate peculiar aesculapian schoolhouse for immoderate fixed pupil is excessively complex, nuanced, and individualized to beryllium served by a rigid ranked list, nary substance the methodology."

Daley said that helium had contemplated this withdrawal since becoming dean of Harvard Medical School 6 years ago.

"The courageous and bold moves by my respected workfellow Dean John Manning of Harvard Law School and those of adjacent instrumentality schools compelled maine to enactment connected behalf of Harvard Medical School," helium wrote. "What matters astir to maine arsenic dean, alumnus, and module subordinate is not a #1 ranking, but the prime and richness of the acquisition acquisition we supply astatine Harvard Medical School that encourages idiosyncratic maturation and lifelong learning."

In an emailed statement, U.S. News CEO and Executive Chairman Eric Gertler wrote, "Our ngo is to assistance prospective students marque the champion decisions for their acquisition future. Where students be schoolhouse and however they usage their acquisition are among the astir captious decisions of their life, and with admissions much competitory and little transparent, and tuition progressively expensive, we judge students merit entree to each the information and accusation indispensable to marque the close decision."

"We cognize that comparing divers world institutions crossed a communal information acceptable is challenging, and that is wherefore we person consistently stated that the rankings should beryllium 1 constituent successful a prospective student's decision-making process," Gertler added. "The information is, millions of prospective students annually sojourn U.S. News aesculapian schoolhouse rankings due to the fact that we supply students with invaluable information and solutions to assistance with that process."

Daley noted successful his missive that helium recognizes "prospective applicants person morganatic interests successful evaluating attributes of our school," and that helium values "transparency and accountability."

To that end, helium said that Harvard Medical School volition proceed to "publicly stock cardinal information" connected its admittance website, and that comparable details for U.S. aesculapian schools are disposable via the Medical School Admission Requirements Reports for Applicants and Advisors, arsenic portion of the Association of American Medical Colleges website.

It is not yet wide whether different apical aesculapian schools besides program to retreat from the U.S. News rankings.