Business, Medical Schools Finish 1st In Rankings

For the sixth consecutive year, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School both finished number one in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Harvard also received first place rankings in the exclusively peer-reviewed Political Science and English categories.

The Medical School finished first in the research division with an 18-point lead over John’s Hopkins, the second ranked institution. This marks the Medical School’s 19th consecutive year at the top of the rankings.

Harvard was joined by Stanford for first place in Business and second place in Law this year.

The Business School has ranked number one in the Business Division since 2003, but this is the first time it has shared the position.

This is the second consecutive year that the Law School and Stanford Law tied for second place in the Law Division behind Yale. Yale Law School has held first place in the division since the inception of the U.S. News rankings in 1990.

Harvard’s Graduate School of Education slipped three places in the Education Division finishing sixth behind Stanford and the University of Oregon among others. Harvard received a score of 94, placing it within six points of the top ranked Stanford.

While acknowledging the prestige of achieving such high rankings, spokespeople at the Business School and the Graduate School of Education said that prospective students should make their own judgments about the school.

“The Harvard Graduate School of Education has made it a policy not to comment on rankings in order to encourage students to personally evaluate schools,” said the school’s communications officer Michael G. Rodman.

“We encourage students to visit campuses, consider teaching styles, and assess specific programs,” he added. “Whether it be U.S. World and News or a number of other annual ranking reports, the student’s personal assessment is most important.”

Director of Media Relations at the Business School James E. Aisner ’68 said that students should look beyond numbers when it comes to choosing schools.

“Prospective students need to find the school that’s the best match for them and their aspirations,” he said. “That involves more than simply looking at a list of numerical rankings.”

U.S. News aims to objectively assess schools based on several elements including scores on standardized tests, the average undergraduate GPA, and input from deans, faculty, recruiters and professionals. Numerical scores are assigned based on a formula that takes these factors into account.

Requests for comment from the Medical School were not returned by press time.