The best-known "best medical schools" list comes from U.S. News & World Report, which rates schools separately for research and for primary care. Since 2024 it no longer gives schools numbered ranks; it sorts them into four tiers, after Harvard and other leading schools stopped supplying data in 2023. Rankings measure a narrow set of numbers, so treat them as one input, not as a verdict on where you will get the best education.
How U.S. News rates medical schools
U.S. News produces two separate lists, because a school that leads in research may not be the one that trains the most family doctors.
The research list
According to U.S. News' methodology for its 2026 edition, the research rating weights:
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Research activity | 60% | Federal research funding, NIH grants at the school and affiliated hospitals, and funding per faculty member |
| Student selectivity | 20% | MCAT scores, undergraduate GPA and acceptance rate |
| Faculty resources | 20% | Full-time faculty relative to students |
The primary care list
The primary care rating weights:
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Primary care production | 60% | Graduates entering primary care residencies and practicing in primary care |
| Student selectivity | 30% | MCAT, GPA and acceptance rate |
| Faculty resources | 10% | Faculty relative to students |
The primary care list includes both MD and DO schools, which is why osteopathic schools can appear near the top of it.
The four tiers
Schools are placed by their overall score, expressed as a percentile against all rated schools:
- Tier 1: 85th to 99th percentile
- Tier 2: 50th to 84th percentile
- Tier 3: 15th to 49th percentile
- Tier 4: 1st to 14th percentile
Within each tier, schools are listed alphabetically. In the 2026 edition, released in April 2026, 16 schools reached Tier 1 for research and 16 for primary care, according to coverage of the release. The University of California, San Francisco, which this site has long followed, was one of the few schools in Tier 1 on both lists.
The 2023 boycott and why U.S. News moved to tiers
Harvard leads, others follow
On January 17, 2023, Harvard Medical School announced it would no longer submit data to U.S. News. At the time it was ranked first for research. Within about two weeks, Columbia, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Washington, Duke and the University of Chicago announced similar decisions. Johns Hopkins followed in May 2023 and Brown in August 2023.
The deans' main complaints were that the rankings:
- Rewarded high MCAT scores and GPAs, which can discourage schools from admitting talented students with less traditional records
- Leaned on reputation surveys that say little about teaching quality
- Ignored things that matter to patients and students, such as service to underserved communities and student debt
How the methodology changed
U.S. News responded in stages. It reduced the weight of reputation surveys and test scores and added more research funding measures. Then, when it published its next medical school ratings in July 2024, it replaced numbered ranks with tiers and dropped peer and residency director reputation surveys altogether. It explained that many residency program directors do not consider medical school reputation in residency matching. It also stopped publishing medical specialty rankings, citing insufficient survey data. The April 2025 and April 2026 editions kept the tier format and again left out reputation surveys.
Several famous schools still do not provide data, so they may be missing from the lists or rated only on public figures. An absence from the tiers says nothing about a school's quality.
What rankings miss
Even a well-designed formula can only count what is easy to count. Rankings do not tell you:
- How well a school teaches. NIH funding reflects a school's research enterprise, which may have little to do with first-year classroom teaching.
- Clinical training quality. Where you do rotations, how much hands-on responsibility you get and the patient mix at affiliated teaching hospitals shape your training more than a research score does.
- Match outcomes in your specialty. Ask schools where recent graduates matched for residency.
- Cost and debt. Neither list weighs tuition, aid or graduate debt. A state school with in-state tuition can cost a fraction of a private school.
- Fit and support. Curriculum style, pass/fail grading, advising, wellness resources and class culture are not measured.
- Mission. Schools focused on rural care, underserved communities or primary care may excel at exactly what you want while rating lower on research.
Better data to look at alongside rankings
Several free sources answer questions rankings cannot:
- School match lists. Most schools publish where graduates matched for residency each spring. Look for the specialties and hospitals that interest you.
- AAMC MSAR. Shows admissions statistics, residency preferences, prerequisites, and tuition for each US MD school.
- Teaching hospital affiliations. Your clinical years happen in a school's affiliated hospitals. The AAMC's Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems brings together major teaching hospitals, and a school's main affiliates tell you a lot about the patients you will see.
- Graduate debt and aid data. Schools report average debt and typical scholarship amounts, which matter more to most families than a tier.
How to use rankings wisely
Use rankings as a starting point, then switch to sources that measure what matters to you.
- Pick the right list. If you want a research career or an academic specialty, the research list is more relevant. If you want family medicine, pediatrics or internal medicine in the community, start with primary care.
- Think in tiers, not positions. Schools within one tier are close enough that the differences are small.
- Build your list from admissions data. The AAMC's Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) database shows median MCAT and GPA, residency preferences and mission. Applying where your numbers fit matters more than prestige.
- Check residency preference. Many public schools admit mostly state residents. Our guide to medical schools in Texas shows how strong that preference can be.
- Compare total cost. Look at four-year cost of attendance and typical aid packages.
- Ask hard questions at interviews. Ask about match lists, board pass rates, clinical sites, student support and attrition.
- Confirm accreditation. For US MD programs, confirm the school is accredited by the LCME. If you are weighing schools abroad, see our guide to California's former list of disapproved foreign medical schools for why licensing rules matter.
You can read U.S. News' own explanation on its medical school methodology page. Before applying, make sure you meet the AMCAS medical school requirements.
Key takeaways
- U.S. News rates medical schools on two separate lists, research and primary care, each weighted 60% toward its main focus.
- Since July 2024, U.S. News has sorted schools into four tiers by percentile instead of numbered ranks, and it no longer uses reputation surveys.
- Harvard's withdrawal on January 17, 2023 started a boycott joined by Columbia, Stanford, Penn, Mount Sinai, Duke and others; many still do not submit data.
- Rankings miss teaching quality, clinical training, cost, debt and fit.
- Use rankings to start a search, then rely on MSAR data, match lists and school visits to decide.