Brown University’s medical school has announced it will no longer participate in the U.S. News & World Report rankings over concerns about diversity and inclusion.
Brown University Senior Vice President for Health Affairs Mukesh K. Jain sent a letter Tuesday explaining the school’s decision to no longer submit data to the company, citing conflict with institutional values. Jain said that after meeting with a variety of university stakeholders, the medical school’s leadership team decided U.S. News’ rankings did not fully reflect their students’ abilities and had a negative impact on the academic environment.
Jain’s letter also took issue with the rankings’ weighting of objective and quantifiable academic metrics — such as grades and standardized testing — that, he argued, may not tell the full story of a student or applicant’s capabilities.
“Among the specific driving factors in our decision to withdraw is the U.S. News ranking’s continued and significant emphasis on undergraduate GPAs and MCAT scores for each school’s enrolled medical students,” Jain continued. “While these are two factors among many that can be considered in evaluating applicants, they do not necessarily measure holistically the qualities that will make an outstanding Brown-trained physician.”
“We weigh a much broader set of criteria in reviewing applicants to The Warren Alpert Medical School, recognizing that there are many measures of preparation for medical school and many paths toward a life and career in medicine,” he added.
I am so proud to be a part of an institution that stands by its values@USNews rankings are hostile, inequitable and useless. Bravo @BrownMedicine for this move. Let’s put these rankings out of business altogetherhttps://t.co/vIPg4dWOan
— Pat McGann, MD (@PTMcGann) August 30, 2023
Jain further argued the U.S. News rankings could promote a “perverse incentive” to give more financial aid to applicants with higher grades and test scores.
“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. Participating in a system that may fuel such inequity flies in the face of Brown’s commitment to access and inclusion,” Jain wrote.
Jain said Brown’s medical school values “social responsibility and community engagement and service. We are dedicated to anti-racism and inclusiveness, diversity and equity. None of these can be adequately measured by a quantitative ranking scale.”
The institution’s decision to end its participation in U.S. News ranking will take effect in 2024, as data from 2023 has already been compiled and published, according to a press release from the university.
Jain’s letter comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court barring race-based admissions in late June. Amid the blockbuster decision, elite universities across the country have reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining racial diversity on campus by working around the decision’s prohibitions.
Thirteen medical schools, including Harvard, Stanford and Columbia, have dropped out of the U.S. News rankings since January, questioning the system’s effectiveness.
“We know that comparing diverse academic institutions across a common data set is challenging, and that is why we have consistently stated that the rankings should be one component in a prospective student’s decision-making process,” U.S. News CEO and Chair Eric Gertler told Becker’s Hospital Review. “The fact is, millions of prospective students annually visit U.S. News medical school rankings because we provide students with valuable data and solutions to help with that process.”