U.S. News has released the 2023 ranking of Research and Primary Care Medical Schools. A total of 192 medical and osteopathic schools, accredited in 2021 by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association, were surveyed. This information, along with the results of peer assessment surveys, was used to calculate both overall rankings and eight medical field specialty rankings, as well as each medical school’s profile in the usnews.com directory.
Highlights of the 2023 medical school rankings
Harvard Medical School and New York University (Grossman) retained their first and second place rankings in the research medical schools. Duke University fell from #3 to a tie with University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) at #6, with Columbia gaining one spot to share third place with Johns Hopkins University (up from #7) and University of California, San Francisco (up from #4). Despite a lot of movement, all of the Top 10 programs from last year held onto their Top 10 status this year.
Primary care programs had some ranking changes as well. While University of Washington and University of California, San Francisco kept their first and second positions, University of North Carolina took a tumble from the #3 spot to #5. University of Minnesota climbed two places to take over the #3 spot, while Oregon Health and Science University stayed at #4. University of California, Davis moved up 3 spots to join the top 10 and University of Pittsburgh climbed from spot #34 to #10 (tied with University of Massachusetts and University of Kansas).
U.S. News 2023 Top 10 Medical Schools: Research
| 2023 Rank | 2022 Rank | 2021 Rank | School | ’23 vs ’22 Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Harvard University | – |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | New York University (Grossman) | – |
| 3 | 4 | 6 | Columbia University | +1 |
| 3 | 7 | 2 | Johns Hopkins University | +4 |
| 3 | 4 | 6 | University of California, San Francisco | +1 |
| 6 | 3 | 12 | Duke University | -3 |
| 6 | 9 | 3 | University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) | +3 |
| 8 | 4 | 4 | Stanford University | -4 |
| 9 | 7 | 13 | University of Washington | -2 |
| 10 | 10 | – | Yale University | – |
U.S. News 2023 Top 10 Medical Schools: Primary Care
| 2023 Rank | 2022 Rank | 2021 Rank | School | ’23 vs ’22 Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2 | University of Washington | – |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | University of California, San Francisco | – |
| 3 | 5 | 15 | University of Minnesota | +2 |
| 4 | 4 | 7 | Oregon Health and Science University | – |
| 5 | 3 | 1 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | -2 |
| 6 | 6 | 9 | University of Colorado | – |
| 7 | 6 | 12 | University of Nebraska Medical Center | -1 |
| 8 | 11 | 7 | University of California, Davis | +3 |
| 9 | 8 | 10 | Harvard University | -1 |
| 10 | 9 | 38 | University of Kansas Medical Center | -1 |
| 10 | 10 | 26 | University of Massachusetts, Worcester | – |
| 10 | 34 | 17 | University of Pittsburgh | +24 |
Methodology
Of the 192 schools contacted, 130 responded and provided sufficient data to calculate an overall rank. Of the 130, 124 were ranked in both the research and primary care rankings. Six medical or osteopathic schools are shown as unranked because, as of mid-winter 2022, they had only provisional, preliminary, or pre-accreditation status.
Both primary care and research rankings are computed from weighted averages of a variety of ranking indicators. This year, medical school deans recommended a reallocation of weights for the total federal research activity and average federal research activity per faculty member for the research medical school ranking. The weight of total federal research per faculty member went down from 15% to 10%, while the weight of total federal research dollar expenditures went up from 25% to 30%. This change places more emphasis on total federal research payments data instead of faculty counts. Both of these indicators are now being calculated as two-year averages based on the two most recent years. This change was made because the annual changes in research grants and contracts are generally more volatile than changes in other indicators. These indicators were formerly based on just the most recent year’s data.
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