Pritzker School of Medicine ranks 10th in latest U.S. News survey

Pritzker School of Medicine program ranks 10th in latest survey

University of Chicago medical school earns highest ranking in Illinois

March 10, 2015

The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine moved up a notch to regain its top 10 status as one of the country's best medical schools and its primary care program scored its strongest rating since 2010, according to the latest edition of U.S. News & World Report's "Best Graduate Schools."

The rankings for 2016 are an improvement over last year when Pritzker placed 11th out of 153 medical schools for research. It placed No. 8 in the 2014 rankings and No. 10 in the 2013 list. Pritzker remains the only school in Illinois to be ranked among the top 10. Meanwhile, its primary care program was tied for the 19th spot. That ranking is up from No. 26 for 2015 and 39 for 2014.

Tuesday's results placed Pritzker in a three-way tie with the University of Michigan and the University of Washington. Harvard University ranked first in the nation, followed by Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California-San Francisco and the University of Pennsylvania. Other schools in the top 10 included Washington University in St. Louis, Yale University, Columbia University and Duke University.

The methodology for the medical school rankings includes scores based on reputation, which is assessed by deans and program directors. Other factors include competitiveness of students, acceptance rates, faculty-student ratios and research funding. The full list of U.S. News medical school rankings is available at usnews.com.

Pritzker was third in the country for the amount of federal research grants it received per faculty member from the National Institutes of Health. Pritzker received an average of $255,800 for each faculty member, behind only Stanford University ($381,800) and New York University ($333,700). Meanwhile, the school was tied with Stanford University as the third-most selective medical school, earning high marks for its median MCAT score, the median undergraduate GPA of its students and its overall acceptance rate. Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania earned higher selectivity scores.

Other programs within the Biological Sciences Division had their 2015 results re-published Tuesday. Last year's report said PhD programs in the Biological Sciences Division were ranked 14th in the country. The University of Chicago paleontology program, which draws from the interdepartmental and inter-institutional Committee on Evolutionary Biology, was rated No. 1 in the nation. And the school's Ecology/Evolutionary Biology program tied for 4th. Those rankings will be updated in three years.