University of Iowa earns second-tier status in revised U.S. News med school rankings

IOWA CITY — A year after a number of top medical schools boycotted the U.S. News & World Report rankings for its reliance on reputation and other potentially biased metrics, the publication has recalibrated its process and released new grouping-style med school standings — putting the University of Iowa in a second of four tiers.

The UI Carver College of Medicine landed in that second tier in both the research and primary care categories — joining, in the research category, 35 other institutions below the 16 top-tier schools but above 35 in tier three and 15 in tier four.

U.S. News — which typically ranks campuses numerically — included in its primary care category 15 tier-one schools, 35 in both tiers two and three and 14 in tier four.

The publication, per tier, listed schools alphabetically instead of ordinally. Twenty percent of last year’s top 100 medical schools for research and primary care didn’t participate in the updated U.S. News survey, declining to report data.

“No schools were assessed solely on data reported in previous editions, unlike what was sometimes done for the prior 2023-2024 rankings edition,” according to the publication’s methodology, which during the 2023-24 winter surveyed 196 medical schools and identified about 100 with “eligible data.”

Among the schools listed as “unranked” this year for refusing to participate were nine that placed in the top 10 last year in the research category and two of the top-10 campuses in last year’s primary care category — including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Cornell and New York universities.

Given objections, U.S. News this year dropped reputational surveys from factoring in its assessments.

“The ‘Best Medical Schools’ rankings are a critical source of information as prospective students, faculty, and staff make decisions about where to work, learn, and receive care,” UI Health Care Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson said in a statement. “And the U.S. News rankings are well-recognized across the country.”

As UIHC ramps up staffing to fill out new health care campuses in downtown Iowa City and North Liberty — along with a future new inpatient tower planned for the main campus — Jamieson said the rankings also can help “recruit and retain outstanding faculty members, whose expertise as scientists, clinicians, and educators strengthens our educational and research programs.”

Scoring system

Schools were evaluated and placed into tiers across both the research and primary care categories based on student selectivity, medical test scores and faculty resources. Additionally, in the research category, U.S. News considered things like federal grant revenue, activity per faculty member and National Institutes of Health awards.

Indicators specific to the primary care grouping included things like graduates going into primary care specialties and residencies.

Scores between 85 and 99 landed schools in the top tier, followed by those earning 50 to 84 in tier two, 15 to 49 in tier three and 1 to 14 in tier four.

“These ranges are the only scores that display on usnews.com for the general public,” according to the new U.S. News methodology, which — in discussing its 29 unranked and nonreporting medical schools — pushed for more transparency.

“Although prospective medical school students would benefit from learning more about these unranked schools, a comparative rating of participating schools is more informative than having no listing at all,” according to the publication, reiterating it “strongly believes in improving medical school data transparency, both by encouraging schools to report data to U.S. News as well as making more information publicly available on their websites.

“Altogether, more data is better for everyone,” it wrote.

Specialty rankings

Although U.S. News didn’t order its main research and primary care categories, it did list medical schools in ranking order in four specialty considerations: most diversity; most graduates practicing in primary care; most graduates practicing in rural areas; and most graduates practicing in shortage areas.

The UI Carver College of Medicine did its best in the rural-serving category — ranking No. 35 out of 168 in percent of graduates practicing in rural areas.

It ranked No. 74 in graduates practicing in shortage areas; No. 88 in graduates practicing in primary care; and No. 97 in most diversity.

“The percentage of underrepresented minority students enrolled in the medical school accounts for 67 percent of the ranking,” according to U.S. News. “The higher the percentage of URM students enrolled, the higher the score in the ranking.”

For its rural ranking, the publication divided the number of 2015 to 2017 med school graduates practicing in rural areas by the total number of graduated physicians for each school.

“The analysis was based on allowing six to eight years to pass since graduation for professionals to arrive at a location and specialty,” according to U.S. News, which tied its endeavor to investigate rural-serving graduates to a national need.

“The patient-to-primary-care-physician ratio in rural areas is only 39.8 physicians per 100,000 people, compared to 53.3 physicians per 100,000 in urban areas,” according to the publication. “This uneven distribution of physicians has an impact on the health of the population.”

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