University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Biological Sciences Division Top Ranked Programs in Illinois

Pritzker School of Medicine, Biological Sciences Division Top Ranked Programs in Illinois

Specialty programs Paleontology ranked #1, Ecology/Evolution tied for #4

March 11, 2014

The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine placed 11th out of the 153 ranked medical schools in the 2015 edition of U.S. News & World Report's "Best Graduate Schools" ratings.

Meanwhile, PhD programs in the Biological Sciences Division ranked 14th in the country. Notable rankings for specialty programs include:

  • Paleontology, which draws from the interdepartmental and inter-institutional Committee on Evolutionary Biology, was rated first in the nation.
  • Ecology/Evolutionary Biology tied for 4th with Stanford University, behind University of California-Berkeley, Cornell University and University of California-Davis.


Last year, the Pritzker School of Medicine ranked 8th tied with three other schools, Columbia University, Duke University and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

This year, the schools that were ranked ahead were: Harvard University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins, University of California-San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University, Yale, Columbia, Duke and the University of Washington.

Pritzker ranked ahead of a host of schools with strong reputations in the 2015 edition of the annual rankings, including University of California-Los Angeles, University of Michigan, University of California-San Diego, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh and Northwestern, among others.

The methodology employed for the medical school rankings is complex and includes scores based on reputation as assessed by deans and program directors, as well as scores based on competitiveness of the students, acceptance rate, faculty student ratio and research funding.

Pritzker did particularly well in NIH research funding per faculty member, where the school placed 5th in the country. It continues to attract top students, placing 2nd in selectivity in the latest rankings, versus 4th last year and 41st in 2004. Selectivity measures median Medical College Admission Test total scores, median undergraduate GPA and acceptance rate.

The rankings for the PhD programs in the Biological Sciences are based on evaluations by deans and department chairs. The last time these rankings were published was in 2010, when the university placed 13th.