It’s no surprise, but it’s sure to be a talking point in weeks to come: The University of Washington is the top-ranked medical school in the nation for primary care, according to a list published this week by U.S. News & World Report. The UW also comes in first for its specialties in rural medicine and family medicine — all rankings it has held for two decades or more.
The Legislature is expected to decide this session whether the UW should expand a satellite medical school program in Spokane, and whether Washington State University should start its own Spokane medical school. With limited funds available to expand doctor training, both schools have been jockeying to convince lawmakers that their ideas for medical-school expansion make the most sense.
The UW’s rural and family medicine programs have been ranked No. 1 by U.S. News for 24 years in a row, and primary care has been No. 1 for 20 of the past 21 years — a point that UW officials frequently bring up as one of the reasons why the Legislature should put money into expanding its existing Spokane program.
The U.S. News ranking takes into account a school’s reputation, as assessed by peer institutions. It also sizes up the school’s selectivity, including the median GPA and MCAT score of entering undergraduates. The UW medical school had an acceptance rate of 4.7 percent in 2014 — acceptance rates among all the schools ranged from a low of 1.6 to a high of 16.5. And 54 percent of its graduates from 2012 through 2014 entered the primary care field. Only 12 of the 57 schools in the U.S. News ranking had 50 percent or more of their graduates going into primary care.
The UW’s medical school ranked 10th overall for research schools. Among some other specialty programs, the UW came in fourth for AIDS, eighth for internal medicine and eighth for pediatrics.
Here’s how other graduate programs ranked:
Best nursing master’s programs: The UW ranked fourth. WSU was 43rd, Pacific Lutheran University 83rd, Gonzaga University 102nd. Among the specialties, the UW ranked 9th for adult/gerontology and primary care nurse practitioners, fifth for family nurse practitioners, and eighth for pediatric/primary care nurse practitioners.
Top MBA programs: Stanford, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School top the list. In this state, the University of Washington’s Foster School of business ranked 23rd for full-time students, and 13th for its part-time MBA program, which is designed for working professionals. Others on the part-time ranking list: Seattle University’s Albers School (61), Gonzaga (81), UW Bothell (103) and UW Tacoma (153).
Best law schools: In a list topped by Yale, Harvard and Stanford, the UW came in 28th, Gonzaga 110th and Seattle University 113th.
Best graduate engineering schools: This list was topped by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley. The UW was 27th, and WSU was 76th. Among specialty programs, the UW’s biomedical/bioengineering program was ranked ninth.
Best graduate schools of education: The nation’s top schools were Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Harvard. The UW came in sixth. For specific programs, the UW was 10th for administration/supervision, ninth for elementary education, seventh for secondary education and ninth for special education.
Tops in health disciplines: The UW’s health programs did well in a number of specialties: audiology doctorate (3), clinical psychology doctorate (2), health care management master’s (10), occupational therapy master’s/doctorate (15), pharmacy (10), physician assistant master’s (11), public health master’s/doctorate (6), social work master’s (3) and speech-language pathology (3).
