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med school ratings


Guest ssup

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Hey guys...

 

I know that Macleans ranks the canadian med schools but I've also heard of another ranking system: something that starts with a "g"...gomeller or something?

 

anyone know the name?

 

Ssup

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Guest peachy

As far as I know, Maclean's only ranks schools in general, and focusses on undergraduate education. They happen to have a category of "medical/doctoral schools" but that's only because it's a convenient way to categorize universities, not because they are ranking the medical schools themselves.

 

You're probably thinking of the Gourman report rankings.

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Guest UTMed07

Gourman Report it is. You can probably borrow a copy in your local library. I found one from a couple of years back. If I remember correctly the top three (Canadian) schools were:

1. McGill

2. Toronto

3. UBC

 

The thing I thought was most interesting is: the bottom Canadian school was still rated better than more than half of the US schools.

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Guest UWOMED2005

Watch it with the Gourman. I don't think they update their rankings often - the ratings for each school have not changed by more than 0.02 for any of the Canadian schools over the last 15 years or so.

 

These were the numbers I remember:

 

Top 5 in World:

1) Sorbonne, Paris 4.94

2) Heidelberg, Germany 4.93

3) Harvard?? 4.93

Either 4 or 5 was McGill and the other was an American school, probably Hopkins

 

Canada

McGill 4.91 (top 5 in world)

U of T 4.90 (top 10 in world)

UBC 4.85

U Montreal 4.78

MacMaster 4.74

Queen's 4.68

Laval 4.63

University of Manitoba (high 4.5s?)

U of O 4.51 or 4.48

U Alberta near 4.5

UWO 4.48, or 4.51

U of C just below 4.5

MUN (memorial) 4.37

Dalhousie 4.33

Sherbrooke 4.25

Saskatchewan 4.16

 

Sorry, my memory is a little foggy as I looked these up over two years ago when I was applying. I think you'll find most of them are correct, though some are ballpark and there's a possibility I got MUN and Dal switched up.

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Guest UTMed07
Sorry, my memory is a little foggy...

 

UWOMED2005 you're a pretty sick puppy if you actually remembered those scores from a couple of years ago. :P

 

I may not have your memory... but my photocopying skills are pretty good :D (I have a photocopy of the Gourman 8th Ed. - '97)

 

Here are some minor corrections/additions:

 

Laval 4.62

Manitoba 4.57

U of O 4.51

UWO 4.48

U of A        4.46

U of C        4.43

MUN 4.37

Dal 4.33

U of Sher 4.25

U of Sask 4.16

 

The US top five:

Harvard        4.93

Johns Hopkins 4.92

U of Penn 4.91

U of Cal-SF 4.90

Yale 4.89

 

1) Sorbonne, Paris 4.94

2) Heidelberg, Germany 4.93

3) Harvard?? 4.93

Either 4 or 5 was McGill and the other was an American school, probably Hopkins

Based on the scores:

Hopkins fourth

McGill fifth

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Guest UWOMED2005

Not too bad for an old (or at least aging) man, eh? My memory was from '93 results - almost identical to the '97, despite huge changes to funding of the schools over that 4 year period. I think I remember looking at a Gourman report from the early or mid 80s that was the exact same, though I think Alberta went from something like 4.44 to 4.46.

 

There is no way with all the curriculum revisions, funding changes, and faculty changes that the ratings should change by so little an amount.

 

I'll reiterate Maclean's rates criteria FOR THE SCHOOL AS A WHOLE.

 

There is not an existant rating system for med schools in Canada that I would let (or rather did let) affect my decisions one iota.

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Thanks for all the responses guys....

 

First off, I agree with UWOMED 2005 that these rankings should be meaningless in our decisions for what medical school to attend. Still, it's sparked my interest...

 

I'm not sure I understand this correctly though: Many of you have said that the Maclean ratings are not for medical schools specifically, but rather an evaluation of the school as a whole. From what I'm reading though, there are different categories in the Macleans ratings:

 

Ex. Guelph was the "Comprehensive" winner...ie best overall school (this is what you're talking about in terms of judging the school as a whole)

 

But for the medical/doctoral category, isn't that JUST a ranking of the school's medical and PHD program?

 

I realized that these ranking smay be biasked and therefore essentially meaningless but I'm just trying to understand their criteria....

 

Also, does the Gourman report rank JUST the medical programs of these schools or the school as a whole?

 

Thanks guys,

Ssup

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Guest UTMed07
First off, I agree with UWOMED 2005 that these rankings should be meaningless in our decisions for what medical school to attend. Still, it's sparked my interest...
I don't think the rankings are important. That said, I wouldn't totally ignore them if you're interested in a career in academic medicine.

 

Many of you have said that the Maclean ratings are not for medical schools specifically, but rather an evaluation of the school as a whole. From what I'm reading though, there are different categories in the Macleans ratings:
The three divisions in many ways is artifical. I think the divisions were made to emphasize that the focus of large and small universities is different. A vast generalization is: large schools tend to focus on research, small ones on teaching.

 

But for the medical/doctoral category, isn't that JUST a ranking of the school's medical and PHD program?
No.

 

Also, does the Gourman report rank JUST the medical programs of these schools or the school as a whole?
Just the medical programs. Gourman has separate rankings for different programs/fields of study.
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Guest UWOMED2005

No, that's not the way Macleans works. It divides all schools into three categories:

 

1) Primarily Undergrad - the smaller schools without much graduate studies, ie Mt A, Trent, Brock, St. FX

 

2) "Comprehensive" - those schools that are larger and have extensive grad programs, but no med school (ie Guelph, Waterloo, Carleton, SFU)

 

3) "Medical/Doctoral" - those schools with a med school (U of T, UWO, Dal, etc.)

 

The best "comprehensive" school is NOT the best school overall, but the best in its category. Same goes for "Medical/Doctoral," though the criteria ranks the WHOLE school and not just the med school.

 

There is no one list they compile that ranks ALL the schools, just the schools within their categories!

 

Gourman rates JUST the med school, or the law school, or the grad school, depending on which section of the rankings you check.

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Guest aneliz

UWOMEDS is correct, the Maclean's rankings evaluate the entire university...from a primarily undergraduate program perspective (entering average of 1st yr undergrads, class size in first year undergrad, # library holdings per capita, # of award winning faculty, % of undergrads graduating in 5 years or less...etc)

 

These rankings have little (if anything) to do with the med schools or other professional faculties.

 

As already pointed out, ALL universities were placed in one of three categories...and ALL categories are evaluated using the same criteria...but there are three categories because it would be completely unfair to directly compare places like McGill directly to Lakehead...or UofT to Trent or StFX...etc.

 

These schools have vastly different focus, funding structure, faculty, entrance requirements, etc.

 

The medical/doctoral category simply means that the university has a medical program...it is a useful way to identify similar types of universities...most schools with a med school have similar sized undergrad student bodies, similar types of programs offered to undergrads, similar entrance requirements for undergrads, simiilar library holdings, etc...there is no evaluation of any part of the med program itself contained in any of the Maclean's rankings...

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