Rankings rise for some ‘U’ schools

According to the latest rankings, the Business School also rose
from 13th to 10th, the Law School remained 7th and the College of
Engineering and the School of Education each dropped two spots, to
8th and 10th respectively.

University Medical School Dean Allen Lichter said student
quality is key to the rise in rankings.

“We have steadily increased our scores in each area that
the ranking considers, but our most meaningful gains have come due
to the quality of the students we attract,” he said.
“When residency program directors rank the school they would
most like to have students enter their training programs from, we
tie for third nationally, just behind Harvard University and Johns
Hopkins University.”

Sunil Thakur, president of the Business School’s Student
Government Association, said many of Dean Robert Dolan’s new
initiatives are starting to show results. He credited the
“rebranding and repositioning of the school,” such as a
new logo and curriculum, for the rise in rankings.

“We have a lot of bright new faculty,” Thakur
added.

Although The Wall Street Journal and other publications
typically rank the Business School in the top three or four in the
nation, Thakur said U.S. News and World Report’s ranking is
lower because it focuses more on quantitative statistics, such as
grade point averages, than on recruiter rankings.

Ever since 2001, when the Medical School was ranked 10th, it has
steadily advanced in its placement among graduate schools. With its
new rank, the Medical School outranks institutions such as Columbia
(eighth), Stanford (ninth), Yale (11th) and Cornell (12th)
universities.

Among the schools that placed ahead of the University’s
Medical School were Harvard University, which finished first, John
Hopkins University and the University of California at San
Fransisco.

According to U.S. News and World Report, each medical
school’s ranking is determined by several factors. Research
activity, primary-care rate, student selectivity (a combination of
the students’ grade point averages and MCAT scores) and
faculty resources are all taken into consideration when determining
the overall rank of a school.

Of the 4,767 applicants who applied to the Medical School last
year, only 170 first-year medical students were selected.
“It’s really competitive,” says LSA senior
Michael Lippicki, who plans to attend a medical school.

“There are so many students who would love to get the
opportunity to go to a prestigious med school like U of M. The only
problem is that students work their hardest throughout their
college years, and come senior year, they realize exactly how low
the acceptance rates really are,” Lippicki said.

According to the Medical School’s website, the qualities
that led to its high ranking include the millions of dollars it
spends on research, expansion of its facilities and faculty
comprised by experienced doctors, researchers and specialists in
their field.

Lichter says the school has a history of success that will
continue in the future. “We have been a great medical school
for over 150 years. The tradition of excellence that Michigan is
known for allows us to attract outstanding faculty and students and
make meaningful contributions to the health and healthcare of the
population. We are gratified that our work is noticed and
recognized.”

He added that he believes the school’s ranking will
continue to improve in the years ahead as it invests in new
facilities and as the University focuses even greater attention on
the life sciences.

Dan Remick, the associate dean for admissions at the Medical
School, said he also hopes the school will continue to increase in
rank. “The Medical School is trying to move into the top
five, and at this rate, we seem to be moving toward the right
direction.”

Administrators at other University graduate schools said they
were pleased with the rankings. When discussing the rate of success
that the Law School has acquired for example, Lisa Mitchell-Yellin,
communications director and web architect at the Law School, said,
“We take a lot of pride in that we are the number one public
law school in the country. The only schools above us are private
schools.”

But Mitchell-Yellin said Law School administrators do not focus
too much on rankings alone.

According to U.S. News and World Report, the Business School
outranks schools like Duke University (11th) and University of
California at Los Angeles (12th), and the University’s Law
School outranks the University of Pennsylvania (eighth) and
Northwestern University (11th). The University’s School of
Education is ranked higher than New York University (12th) and the
College Engineering outranks Princeton University (16th) and
Harvard University (19th).