Law, medical school lists to be published at some later date
After months of heated debate about the value and validity of U.S. News & World Report’s law and medical school rankings, the magazine belatedly released all graduate and professional school results today—except the ones for those two disciplines.
Yet even without the full complement of lists, changes in methodology for several of the now-public ratings signal that some criticisms had landed. The publication consistently reduced the influence of qualitative measures—for example, other school leaders’ reputational assessments. In addition, it often lowered the impact of data related to incoming students—e.g., standardized test scores, grade point averages, and admissions selectivity.
Instead, factors related to outcomes carried much greater weight, a shift that significantly benefited the Weatherhead School of Management. After increasing the proportion of 2022 graduates employed at graduation and three months later by more than 25 percentage points in each category, the school’s full-time MBA program leapt 14 notches, to 68th in the nation.
“We welcome U.S. News‘ shift toward a methodology that rewards student outcomes, which aligns well with Weatherhead’s ‘students first’ philosophy,” said Co-Deans Andrew Medvedev and J.B. Silvers. “We are pleased that our continuing investment in the program, the school’s history of innovation, and strong student outcomes are reflected in the improved ranking.”
The part-time MBA, which involves far fewer factors in its rankings, slipped by two notches, to 50th.
The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, meanwhile, saw more mixed results from the methodological changes. Its master’s degree in nursing program dipped three notches, to 14th, while the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program ranked 20th this year, down from 15th in 2022.
That said, the DNP dominated specialty rankings, with both its administration and adult gerontology primary care specialties ranked 6th, its adult gerontology acute care program 7th, and its family specialty at 8th. The adult gerontology acute care program master’s degree specialty also ranked 7th.
Engineering overall fell eight spots to rank 53rd, while biomedical engineering came in at 21st, aerospace engineering at 29th and chemical engineering at 34th.
In a new ranking of health programs based solely on peer ratings, the Case Western Reserve’s physician assistant program ranked 27th.
The magazine initially announced it would publish all rankings on Tuesday, April 18, but then announced April 14 that it was delaying release until today after receiving an “unprecedented number of inquiries” regarding data that had been provided to schools on an embargoed basis.
Last Wednesday, however, the magazine announced that it would not be releasing law and medical school rankings until a later date, in part because of the volume of questions—as well as requests from those schools “to update data submitted after the collection period.” Leaders of some of those schools spoke publicly about concerns that U.S. News had used incorrect or outdated information in certain categories.