School of Medicine rises in national rankings
The primary care and pediatrics programs at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have been ranked among the nation’s best, and are listed in the top 10 in their categories in the 2007 edition of graduate school rankings by U.S.News & World Report.
In the news magazine’s most recent America’s Best Graduate Schools report, the primary care program at the CU School of Medicine ranks sixth nationally – up from last year’s 11th place ranking – and ties with programs at Duke University, East Carolina University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, the CU School of Medicine’s pediatrics program ranks seventh nationally, one place higher than last year’s rankings.
In the category of research, the CU School of Medicine tied for 26th place with Georgia’s Emory University, rising from last year’s 30th place ranking.
“ We are pleased to once again be honored with these top rankings. These highly ranked programs are but three of our excellent programs at the CU School of Medicine, where our faculty and students advance science and improve care,” said Richard Krugman, MD, dean of the CU School of Medicine.
Pharmacy and nursing graduate programs were not ranked this year. Last year, the CU School of Pharmacy’s PharmD program ranked 23rd in the nation. In the 2004 edition of the U.S.News & World Report rankings, when nursing was last ranked, the CU School of Nursing ranked 15th nationally for its master’s degree programs. The school also ranked first in the pediatric nursing specialty; sixth for both the nursing service administration specialty and family specialty; and 10th for the gerontological/geriatric specialty. In other programs, the community/public health for clinical nurse specialists ranked seventh, and the nursing/midwifery master’s program ranked 10th.
Each year, U.S.News & World Report ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine, based on expert opinion about program quality as well as statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. Data for this year’s rankings came from 2005 surveys of more than 1,200 programs and some 9,600 academics and professionals.
To gather opinion data, the news magazine asked deans, program directors and senior faculty to judge the academic quality of programs in their field.
Statistical indicators used in the rankings of business, education, engineering and medical schools falls into two categories, including inputs and outputs. Inputs are measures of the qualities that students and faculty bring to the educational experience, and outputs are measures of graduates’ achievements linked to their degrees.
For research rankings, the magazine measured the total dollar amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants awarded to the medical school and its affiliated hospitals, and the average amount of those grants calculated per full-time medical school science and clinical faculty member. Both factors were averaged for fiscal years 2004 and 2005.
In fiscal year 2005, the CU School of Medicine received more than $223 million NIH research grants, or an average of $147,000 per faculty member. That same year, the school’s student enrollment reached 561. Overall, the UCD system received some 1,618 sponsored research grants totaling more than $363 million in fiscal year 2005, with biomedical and basic science research making up the bulk of the funding at more than $345 million.
All of the latest U.S.News & World Report rankings are available on the magazine’s Web site, www.usnews.com, and will appear in print in the April 10 edition of U.S. News & World Report, which hits newsstands on April 3, along with a newsstand book titled America’s Best Graduate Schools.
