‘Best Medical Schools’ Rankings Delayed for Second Year in a Row

For a second year in a row, the “Best Medical Schools” rankings from U.S. News & World Report have been delayed.

This year’s rankings were set to be released on Tuesday, but on Monday afternoon, U.S. News revealed in a blog post that they were once again being held back.

“During our regular rankings pre-publication process, U.S. News received and is currently reviewing queries from some graduate schools, including whether and to what extent affiliated institutions were considered in the bibliometrics data used in the 2024 Best Medical Schools and 2024 Best Engineering Schools rankings, and which accrediting body was used as a source of reference for the 2024 Best Clinical Psychology Programs rankings,” the outlet stated. “We take our role as a journalism enterprise very seriously and we will not publish information without full confidence in what we publish.”

U.S. News did not provide an updated timetable for the release. Rather, it noted that the delay will continue “until such time that we can appropriately address these questions.”

This year’s delay comes amid ongoing tumult surrounding the outlet’s “Best Medical Schools” rankings.

Last year, a number of top schools publicly announced their decisions to no longer submit data to or participate in the rankings. Harvard Medical School led the way in doing so, and a number of other institutions were quick to follow suit.

Also, before the release of last year’s rankings, U.S. News removed a preview of the year’s top ranked medical schools from its site. The outlet stated at the time that it was “dealing with an unprecedented number of inquiries” during its embargo period for the 2023-2024 “Best Graduate Schools” rankings, including requests from schools to update data submitted after the collection period.

And when last year’s final rankings were rolled out, there were measurable changes from the preview.

That edition of the rankings still included a number of schools that had publicly withdrawn — including Harvard at the top of the list — due in part to data that U.S. News sourced itself.

Last month, a spokesperson for U.S. News told MedPage Today in an email that there would not be a public preview in advance of this year’s release.

However, medical schools would be provided their rankings under embargo about 1 week prior to the release, the spokesperson said.

Previously announced changes to this year’s rankings included no longer taking into account peer and residency director surveys, and awarding a new transparency credit to schools that submitted information related to academic achievements to U.S. News or posted it on their own websites.

U.S. News also noted that it had added a survey of individuals who are currently in or who have recently graduated from medical school, as well as a series of bibliographic indicators, based on publications and citations, aimed at further identifying how impactful faculty have been in the field.

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