The Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University has announced that it will no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report Best Medical Schools rankings, saying that the rankings are not consistent with the school’s values or goals.
In a letter to the medical school community on August 29, Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, the dean of medicine and biological sciences and senior vice president for health affairs, explained the decision. He said the decision was based on “the flawed methodology of the rankings and their negative consequences on medical education.” He also said that the school’s leadership team talked with students, alumni, faculty and the University’s governing body before making the decision.
“Central to Brown’s decision to end participation is our belief that such quantitative rankings do not adequately capture the quality of education nor the level of support provided to students at any medical school,” Jain wrote. “The rankings also do not reflect the unique foci and missions of all medical schools, instead ranking them on factors that are not equally valued by all schools. At their worst, they perpetuate a culture of rewarding the most elite and historically privileged groups.”
The change will take effect in 2024, as the 2023 rankings have already been published. Brown is one of more than a dozen other leading medical schools that have also stopped sending data to U.S. News & World Report. Jain said that one of the main reasons for leaving was the ranking’s focus on undergraduate GPAs and MCAT scores, which he said do not measure holistically the qualities of a Brown-trained physician.
The Warren Alpert Medical School values humanism and compassion, innovation and discovery, and anti-racism, diversity and equity, as well as social responsibility, and community engagement and service, Jain said. He also said that the U.S. News rankings may make schools give financial aid to students who boost their ranking rather than those who need it most.
“While this has never been a factor at Brown, this can create bidding wars between medical schools and perpetuate inequities in who is ultimately admitted to the highest-ranked institutions,” Jain said. “Participating in a system that may fuel such inequity flies in the face of Brown’s commitment to access and inclusion.”
Jain also pointed out other factors that influenced the Warren Alpert Medical School’s decision to withdraw from the rankings, such as:
- An overemphasis on research funding from the National Institutes of Health instead of research innovation and impact
- A faculty evaluation approach that focuses on full-time faculty, which disadvantages schools like Brown that value the learning students gain from the clinical faculty who are practicing physicians in affiliated hospitals or other health care settings
- The lack of metrics that measure how much student support a school provides, what amenities and systems students can access, or how they fare after graduation
These factors, Jain wrote, “demonstrate a clear misunderstanding of what truly impacts medical education.”
For prospective students who want to know more about the Warren Alpert Medical School, data usually provided to U.S. News can be found on the Class Profile page on the school’s admissions and financial aid website. This information is updated every year.
After 2024, medical school rankings will not be based on new information provided by the Warren Alpert Medical School. However, Jain noted that U.S. News may still rank schools that do not submit data, using publicly available information and surveys completed in previous years.
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“Our mission at the Warren Alpert Medical School is to provide innovative medical education that prepares a diverse physician workforce to radically improve health and wellness for all — not to achieve ever-higher ranking status,” Jain wrote. “This step affirms our commitment to that mission and to our efforts to make medicine more accountable to the communities we serve.”