Hanna Renaldi's Blog: Best U.S. Medical Schools: U.S. News Releases 2020 Rankings

U.S. News released its annual rankings of the best U.S. medical schools for primary care and research earlier this week.

Potential students can check out the data in the 2020 U.S. News medical school ranking to assess their competitiveness.

U.S. News 2020 ranking methodology

U.S. News medical school ranking is calculated based on expert judgements about program excellence and statistical information measuring the quality of a school’s faculty, research, and students. Peer assessment data was gleaned from deans, program directors, and senior faculty, who evaluated the quality of programs in their field on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being marginal and 5 being outstanding.

This year, U.S. News made several changes to the methodology. Four factors that measured non-National Institutes of Health (NIH) research were eliminated. The weight of the total NIH research dollars ranking indicator was raised to compensate for the eliminated indicators. Family medicine was put back in as a specialty.

School scores

Statistical indicators are composed of inputs, which measure the qualities that students and faculty bring to the program, and outputs that show how much graduates’ achievements are related to their degrees. Each indicator was weighted according to U.S. News’ conclusion about their relative importance based on discussions with experts in each field.

Best U.S. medical schools: Top 20 med schools for research

2020 Rank	School	City, State	2019 Rank
1	Harvard University	1	Boston, MA
2	Johns Hopkins University	2	Baltimore, MD
3	Stanford University	3	Stanford, CA
3	University of Pennsylvania (Perelman)	6	Philadelphia, PA
5	University of California - San Francisco	5	San Francisco, CA
6	Columbia University	11	New York, NY
6	University of California - Los Angeles (Geffen)	8	Los Angeles, CA
8	Washington University in St. Louis	8	St. Louis, MO
9	Cornell University (Weill)	21	New York, NY
9	Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (Alix)	6	Rochester, MN
9	New York University (Langone)	3	New York, NY
12	University of Washington	11	Seattle, WA
13	Duke University	10	Durham, NC
13	University of Pittsburgh	14	Pittsburgh, PA
13	Yale University	11	New Haven, CT
16	University of Chicago (Pritzker)	18	Chicago, IL
16	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	15	Ann Arbor, MI
16	Vanderbilt University	17	Nashville, TN
19	Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	18	New York, NY
19	Northwestern University (Feinberg)	20	Chicago, IL

Best U.S. medical schools: Top 20 med schools for primary care

2020 Rank	School	2019 Rank	City, State
1	University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill	1	Chapel Hill, NC
2	University of Washington	3	Seattle, Washington
3	University of California - San Francisco	2	San Francisco, CA
4	Baylor College of Medicine	5	Houston, TX
5	University of California - Los Angeles (Geffen)	4	Los Angeles, CA
6	Oregon Health and Science University	5	Portland, OR
6	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor	7	Ann Arbor, MI
8	University of Nebraska Medical Center	18	Omaha, NE
9	University of California - Davis	10	Sacramento, CA
10	University of Minnesota	12	Minneapolis, MN
10	University of Pennsylvania (Perelman)	8	Philadelphia, PA
12	University of Colorado	9	Aurora, CO
12	Washington University in St. Louis	10	St. Louis, MO
14	University of Pittsburgh	14	Pittsburgh, PA
15	University of Massachusetts - Worcester	14	Worcester, MA
16	University of Wisconsin - Madison	14	Madison, WI
17	Harvard University	12	Boston, MA
18	Dartmouth College (Geisel)	21	Hanover, NH
18	University of Chicago (Pritzker)	39	Chicago, IL
18	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center	19	Dallas, TX

Looking for more information on how to use these rankings to determine the best programs for you to apply to? Need advice on how to measure your competitiveness relative to other applicants at your target schools? Get in touch – our expert advisors are ready to guide your through the medical school admissions process from start to finish. View our Medical School Application Services for more information on how we can help you get ACCEPTED.