Add Stanford, Columbia, Penn and Mt Sinai to the list of medical schools no longer participating in the USNews rankings.
Stanford Medical School Dean Lloyd Minor said in a message Monday that the school’s leaders held extensive deliberations on the issue. “Ultimately, we believe that the methodology, as it stands, does not capture the full extent of what makes for an exceptional learning environment,” he said.
Columbia notified its medical school students and faculty of its decision on Friday. Dean Katrina Armstrong said the rankings focus too much on standardized test scores, reputation and institutional wealth.
“The USNWR medical school rankings perpetuate a narrow and elitist perspective on medical education,” she said.
J. Larry Jameson, dean of Penn’s medical school, also said the rankings’ approach is too narrow and subjective.
“We reached the decision to end our participation not because of concerns that these rankings are sometimes based on data that can be inaccurate or misleading, but because the rankings measure the wrong things. The USNWR rankings perpetuate a vision for medical education and the future physician and scientist workforce that we do not share,” Dr. Jameson said.