Student Doctor Network (SDN)

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Student Doctor Network (SDN)

What it is: Student Doctor Network (SDN) is a non-profit created to help build a diverse doctor workforce by providing free advising resources and peer-support to “those who would otherwise not have access to such services.” SDN brings together thousands of current and future healthcare students and professionals into one community where they can share information, offer guidance, and provide encouragement to their peers and those coming up behind them. Its nearly 700,000 members spans from high school students to attending physicians.

Why it Matter to You: SDN ranks medical schools on a scale of 5 stars, with 5 stars being the best. It is not very clear how the ranking is determined, although it appears to be based on surveys submitted by website users. The ranking is searchable by SDN score; location; accepted MCAT (or PCAT for pharmacy applicants); accepted GPA

Considerations: SDN is a great resource to get “street level” intelligence on medical school admissions and student life. By reviewing a specific school profile, the user will be able to get detail on the school application process and interview, including specific questions that were asked during the interview and interview stress level.

Created By: Student Doctor Network (SDN)

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QS World University Rankings

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QS World University Rankings

What it is: QS World University Rankings is produced by Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company specializing in education. The ranking lists schools from throughout the world, enabling a comparison of U.S. schools to those abroad. It is the only international ranking to have received International Ranking Expert Group (IREG) approval.

Why it Matter to You: Schools are ranked based on an overall score. The components of that score can be broken out by the user to enable an issue specific analysis. Those components include academic reputation; citations per faculty; and employer reputation. For each university listing, the user can view trend lines going back several years that provide insight to school progress.

Considerations:  Data sources from across the world are not necessarily uniform. This can impact the accuracy of the comparison analysis. Also, several of the score components are reputation-based which may or may not crossover to reputation in the United States. You need to research deeper the impact of a foreign-education on your marketability in the U.S.

Created By:  QS World University Rankings

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Ranker

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Ranker

What it is: Ranker is a digital media company for opinion-based, crowdsourced rankings. It ranking system is based on real-time votes from the Internet community.

Why it Matters to You: Perhaps more of a reference ranking than a definitive one, Ranker does allow the user to review how males vs. females perceive schools as well as reviewing voting by age group.

Considerations:  Ranker’s lists are composed from data collected from online polls; e.g., psychographic profiling. It’s data is regularly cited in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today, among many others.

Created By:  Ranker

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U.S. News & World Report

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U.S. News & World Report

What it is: The well known U.S. News & World Report publishes its list of best medical schools annually. 

Why it Matters to You: The annual database is searchable and user-friendly. Users can search for ranking for research or primary medicine, and further filter for specialty type, e.g., surgery or internal medicine. Users can also review the annual full-time tuition and enrollment numbers.

Considerations: In order to be eligible to be numerically ranked, a medical school or osteopathic school needed to have full accreditation. Of that pool of 185 schools, 120 responded and provided the data needed to calculate the rankings based on the indicators used in the medical school research model. Criteria for ranking included research activity; student selectivity; and achievement of graduates.

Created By:  U.S. News & World Report

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