For the first time in recent history, Dartmouth Medical School is listed in the top 10 of U.S. News and World Report's ranking of primary care medical schools released today.
DMS was excluded from the top 50 medical schools last year, but this year, the school came in eighth.
The Amos Tuck School of Business ranked eighth again in U.S. News's business school rankings, tying the University of California at Los Angeles's Anderson Business School.
The Thayer School of Engineering again failed to rank in the top 50.
The faculty and administration at DMS are very pleased with its eighth-place tie in the primary care medical school rankings, DMS Communications Director Hali Wickner said.
Wickner said this is the first time the Medical School was ever included among the 70 primary care institutions that U.S. News ranked. The DMS graduates who went into primary care practice in the early 1990s were the basis of the Medical School's high rank.
"We're delighted we were able to jump right in there with the best of them," she said.
DMS tied the University of Massachusetts at Worcester's medical school with an overall score of 81 out of 100.
Tuck's ranking in the U.S. News survey has declined from 1996, when it ranked seventh, and 1995, when it ranked sixth.
But Tuck School Dean Paul Danos stressed the importance of Tuck's score of 97 points out of 100 on U.S. News's ranking system, and said it was just "splitting of hairs" that kept Tuck from being even higher on the list.
"There are seven schools between us and perfection," Danos said, noting the very small differences in quality between the top 10 business schools.
He said Tuck's high marks are all the more impressive since the school is not a "household name" and is one-tenth the size of some of the schools with similar rankings.
Tuck's ranking is "an outstanding tribute to the school," although it would be nice to be number one, he said.
U.S. News rates graduate schools according to academic reputation, student selectivity and other factors.
The rankings have stirred up controversy among law schools across the country. On Wednesday, deans from 10 top law schools attacked the ranking system in a press conference in New York.
The deans announced they would be sending a pamphlet to thousands of law school applicants, outlining the faults with the U.S. News ranking system.
This is the ninth year that U.S. News has ranked graduate schools. The weekly magazine releases its ranking of undergraduate institutions in September.
