U.S. News reveals how it ranks veterinary schools

Confronting criticism that the 2015 veterinary school rankings are a flawed measurement of quality, U.S. News and World Report's chief data strategist explained the rankings process to dvm360 and recommended how schools can improve their positions.

To arrive at the rankings, U.S. News sent surveys to veterinary school deans and chairs of the pre-clinical and clinical science departments. With eight weeks to return the surveys, the response rate was 49 percent, according to U.S. News' website.

Respondents rated each of the 28 schools as 5 (outstanding), 4 (strong), 3 (good), 2 (adequate) and 1 (marginal), or they could select “Don't know.” The instructions asked respondents to “consider all factors that contribute to or give evidence of the excellence of the school's programs, for example, curriculum, record of scholarship, quality of faculty and graduates,” according to a sample survey U.S. News provided dvm360.

The scope of the rankings is limited to perception, Robert Morse, U.S. News chief data strategist, says.

Photo source: Getty Images“The veterinary ranking is based on reputation only,” Morse says. “It does not take into account or include other factors besides the one reputation score.”

Reactions to the rankings from the veterinary medicine community were mixed.

"While we understand that a more objective methodology could be developed for these rankings, what they do show is that we have a very positive reputation among our peers, and we don't take that recognition for granted,” Mark D. Markel, DVM, PhD, dean of University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, told dvm360. The program tied for fifth with Ohio State University.

A dvm360.com reader commented, “Unlike rankings for other programs (like law and medical schools), there is no quantitative metric contribution at all. This amounts to little more than a popularity contest where those at the top remain at the top because of historical prestige.”

Critics who suggest the rankings are a popularity contest are mistaken, Morse says.

“We're asking leaders in the field-the top educators in the field who haven't risen to those positions overnight, who have knowledge of the other schools at some level-to rate the other schools, and their opinion is more than superficial, which is what the comment implies,” he says.

Morse says trimming to the mean, which removes the two to three highest and lowest scores, can be used to deter strategic voting. But this wasn't necessary with the veterinary results, he says.

“We think the aggregate ratings of those informed raters gives a good perspective of the relative standing of the schools compared to each other,” he says.

Programs that want to improve their rank should look to the top schools, he says.

“Find out why Davis and Cornell rank so much higher and then try to adopt some of the attributes if they're missing in your program,” Morse says. “But I don't know what those attributes are.”

Following U.S. News' four-year schedule for surveying veterinary schools, the programs will be ranked again in 2019.