Baylor ranked 10th on national list of medical schools

HOUSTON -- (March 30, 2006) -- Baylor College of Medicine in Houston ranked 10th among the 125 U.S. medical schools in an annual survey published by U.S.News & World Report, moving up three positions from its 13th ranking last year.

BCM was listed as 11th in primary care, moving up from its 22nd ranking last year. Primary care includes internal medicine, family practice, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics.

BCM's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences ranks in the 22nd position for best Ph.D. program in the biological sciences, up from 24th in 2002, which is the last year that the survey was conducted for this field. This also places the Graduate School in the top 10 percent of its category, based on approximately 400 schools with graduate programs on the National Science Foundation's "Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards" for 1999 through 2004.

BCM, Duke University, the University of California – San Francisco and the University of Washington are the only medical schools in the country to achieve top 10 percent ranking in both research and primary care medical school categories and a top 10 percent ranking in their biological sciences program.

"Having our medical school ranked in the top 10 percent of both categories and our graduate school also ranked in the top 10 percent shows that we have outstanding faculty training our students and that we have achieved broad-based excellence at BCM," says Dr. Peter G. Traber, president and CEO of BCM. "It also shows the tremendous strength of our affiliated teaching hospitals that collaborate with BCM to educate the next generation of physicians and scientists."

The medical school rankings survey included 125 medical schools fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, plus the 19 schools of osteopathic medicine fully accredited by the American Osteopathic Association. The rankings are based on a weighted average of eight "indicators" that includes average undergraduate GPAs, average MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) scores, acceptance rate, NIH research grants, faculty-to-student ratio, out-of-state tuition and fees, and total medical school enrollment. In addition, peer-assessment surveys of medical and osteopathic school deans, deans of academic affairs, and heads of internal medicine or directors of admissions rate program quality on a scale of one-to-five.

Doctoral program rankings are based on the results of surveys sent to deans and department chairs in each discipline.