April 5, 2002

Dear Colleague:

Congratulations! You’ve done it yet again. For the 12th consecutive year, you’ve made The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine one of the top two medical schools in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking. Of the nation’s 125 accredited medical schools, only Harvard outscored Hopkins, coming in #1 with an overall score of 100. Hopkins was a close second with a score of 94.

Our school, and its extraordinary faculty and staff, also can take pride in the lineup of both clinical specialty and basic science/Ph.D. programs ranked tops in the magazine’s Best Graduate Schools 2003 edition that goes on sale Monday, April 8.

This year we’ve been ranked #1 again in Internal Medicine (Harvard tied us) and Biomedical Engineering (trailed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology); #2 in AIDS (just behind the University of California, San Francisco); and # 3 in Pediatrics. We are #4 in Geriatrics and Women’s Health (tied with Duke University in the latter category). We also ranked #11 in Primary Care, up substantially from 17th place last year.

In science Ph.D. programs, we tied for fifth place with Stanford in the overall category of Biological Sciences. In Ph.D. specialty programs with a strong base in the School of Medicine, we tied for 4th place in Neuroscience, Microbiology, and Biochemistry; 5th in Molecular Biology; and 6th in Cell Biology.

According to the magazine, it bases its medical school rankings on a combination of two reputational surveys (one of deans/senior faculty and another of directors of intern-residency programs) and objective data (such things as research awarded to the medical school and all its affiliated hospitals, student selectivity, and faculty resources). The Ph.D. program rankings use the National Science Foundation’s "Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards" list as the source of programs surveyed by the weekly news publication.

Rounding out the magazine’s top ten medical schools overall are Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, Duke, UCSF, Columbia University, University of Michigan, Yale and University of Washington. No new rankings were compiled this year for schools of nursing or public health.

We know that these rankings are not entirely "scientific," and I don’t need them to treasure your hard work and accomplishments. But as Hopkins and all academic medical centers continue to face intense public scrutiny, rapid change and economic uncertainty, it is extraordinarily gratifying to me that others recognize your unflagging commitment to excellence. Thanks to each and every one of you.

Edward D. Miller, M.D.

Dean, Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

[Return to Top]