News Release

April 27, 2006
Contact: Jerry Carey (856) 566-6171
Patricia M. Hansen (732) 235-6307

Two UMDNJ Schools Named 'America's Best'

U.S. News & World Report magazine has selected the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine among those it ranked as the best medical schools in America. Each year, U.S. News & World Report surveys all United States medical schools and then ranks them in 10 different categories. Those rankings are reported in the magazine's annual edition of America's Best Graduate Schools. The recently announced listing for 2007 includes the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for both primary care and research, and the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine for geriatric medicine.

"While there are some questions surrounding the methodology used in such rankings, the fact that U.S. News & World Report and our peers around the country have recognized the many, extraordinary strengths of UMDNJ is yet another one of the many positive indicators we see as we move the University forward," said Dr. Bruce C. Vladeck, interim president of UMDNJ.

To create the list of America's best medical schools, U.S. News & World Report surveyed the 125 medical schools fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, plus the 19 schools of osteopathic medicine fully accredited by the American Osteopathic Association. The rankings are based on a weighted average of such indicators as peer and residency assessment, faculty resources, and student selectivity (which includes the mean composite Medical College Admission Test scores, the mean undergraduate grade-point average of the 2005 entering class and the proportion of applicants who were offered admission). The research rankings factor in research activity and the primary-care rankings adds a measure of the proportion of graduates entering primary-care specialties.