Harvard University Medical School is withdrawing from an annual ranking of the nation’s top medical schools amid claims it discourages support for low-income students.
Citing “philosophical” issues with US News & World Report’s longstanding list, Dean George Daley conveyed the decision in a message to members of the medical school community on Tuesday.
The list ranks the top medical schools in the country and is commonly used by prospective students and parents to determine which colleges to apply to.
Opponents now call the annual compilation “flawed” and claim it can unfairly affect students’ chances of applying for jobs, graduate schools and PhD programs.
Previously, Harvard’s medical school was ranked the best in the country for research and ninth for primary care.
Citing “philosophical” issues with US News & World Report’s longstanding list, Dean George Daley conveyed the decision in a message to members of the medical school community on Tuesday
Announcing the school’s decision not to send information to the media company for its spreadsheets, Dean Daley said he was inspired by recent decisions by the Harvard and Yale law schools to withdraw from their list of law schools over justice-related concerns leading legal institutions to withdraw.
“Rankings cannot meaningfully reflect the high aspirations for educational excellence, graduate readiness, and compassionate and equitable patient care that we seek to promote in our medical education program,” said Daley, a longtime HMS faculty member who serves as the school’s deanery in took over in 2017.
The dean cited problems education leaders had with the methodology US News & World Report used for its lists, which had been dominated by Yale and Harvard since the 1980s.
Daley, a recognized leader in stem cell research and cancer biology, argued that the rankings create “perverse” incentives for institutions to report misleading or inaccurate data in order to get a better score.
Announcing the school’s decision not to send information to the media company for its spreadsheets, Dean Daley said he was inspired by recent decisions by the Harvard and Yale law schools to withdraw from their list of law schools over justice-related concerns leading legal institutions to withdraw
The biologist added that instead of helping those with financial needs, schools are setting policies aimed at improving their rankings, thus redirecting financial aid only to high-performing students and not to those who may actually need it.
“Ultimately, the suitability of a particular medical school for a particular student is too complex, nuanced, and individual to be served by a rigid ranking, regardless of methodology,” Daley said.
US News’ medical school rankings are based on peer-assessment surveys, with 15 percent of a school’s score based on evaluations by deans, directors of admissions, and other academics.
Another 15 percent is based on reviews from residency program leaders.
Last year, Harvard Medical School was ranked by the media outlet as the best in the country for research and ninth in primary care
Mean Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and undergraduate grade point averages are also taken into account.
Also, research activity and production of general practitioners are considered for each of the two medical school lists.
Daley said the ranking, although unintentional, encourages schools to manipulate numbers to get a better place, diverting help from students in need to those with the high test scores.
Instead, Daley insisted that his priority is not to earn a top ranking, but to focus on “the quality and richness of the educational experience” for students at the Massachusetts medical school, while creating an environment conducive to personal growth of students and “lifelong” learning is optimal.’
The school official then turned to recent decisions by the deans of both Yale and Harvard law, praising them as “brave and courageous.”
Both schools caused a stir in November when they withdrew from the law school version of the US report’s list in November.
Daley said the school’s maneuvers – which have since been criticized – formed the blueprint for his decision.
The school official said he was influenced by recent decisions by the law school deans at Yale and Harvard, praising them as “brave and courageous.” Yale Law School dean Heather Gerken (above) removed her school from the company’s list of law schools in November
The school announced its intention to stop providing information to the US report and criticized the ranking methodology as fundamentally flawed. She said she discourages helping low-income students.
Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken argued that the system encourages schools to help those who score high rather than the low-income applicants who need it more urgently.
Gerken said the current list devalues programs aimed at assisting low-income students and programs that promote low-paying public-interest jobs.
“US news rankings are deeply flawed,” Gerken said in a statement. “They discourage incentives for programs that support public interest careers, advocate for need-based assistance, and invite working-class students into the profession.
“His approach not only fails to advance the legal profession, it stands in the direct path of progress.”
Finally, the dean said the system undermines altruistic efforts to give students opportunities as colleges focus on rankings for prestige.
“In fact, over the last few years we’ve invested a lot of energy and capital in important initiatives that make our law school a better place, but work in a perverse way to lower our scores,” she said of the university’s work.
She also criticized rankings’ preference for schools that give scholarships to the best-performing students, not those who need the financial aid.
“This heavily weighted metric puts tremendous pressure on schools to overlook promising students, particularly those who cannot afford expensive test preparation courses,” Gerken said.
“At a moment when concerns about economic justice are at the heart of our national dialogue, only two law schools in the country continue to provide aid that is strictly needs-based — Harvard and Yale.”
The dean added that graduates in the US news rankings appear to be classified as unemployed if they accepted a school-funded scholarship for public-interest jobs or enrolled in higher education.
Yale had stayed at the top of the prestigious list for 32 years, but officials have long complained about the lists, which prioritize test scores and graduate employment
US News & World Report – which began these lists in the 1980s – has since faced criticism in the months that followed, as several academic institutions, including Harvard Law, severed ties with the company.
Several other law schools have joined Yale and Harvard — two of the top-performing schools in the country — and dropped out of the rankings.
The high-profile departure comes after a spate of controversy over US news rankings.
In March, former dean of Temple University’s business school, Moshe Porat, was convicted of fraud for attempting to boost the school’s MBA ranking by submitting false data to US News.
Porat, 76, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and $250,000 after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to deceive donors and claimants.
Temple now ranks 77th in the nation after falling to 100 last year.
Similar systems have been uncovered at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and at Columbia University.
The US News & World report has long been criticized for accepting schools’ self-reported data without any real auditing capability.
Yale exits the ranking system after securing first place for the 32nd year in a row.
The law school is known for producing some of the country’s most prominent lawyers and legal scholars, though several recent graduates have faced challenges because of its connection to the bustling Ivy League university.