<p>Truth123:</p>
<p>UChicago’s medical school elevated its ranking mostly by cutting the size of its class and increasing its admissions numbers, rather than making any significant gains in NIH funding. I believe in the past 10-15 years, UChicago’s med school has becoming increasingly focused on admissions criteria (such as MCAT score, GPA, etc.), and this has boosted its ranking significantly. The school is also 10-15% smaller now than it was years ago. </p>
<p>I doubt, however, that significant strides have been made in research dollars brought in every year. The gap is still so large between UChicago and other schools on this front, that I’m skeptical that the past ~10 years have seen big improvement on this front. The fact that Pritzker brought in $300M this past year and Harvard brought in $1.7B shows that UChicago isn’t yet in the big leagues when it comes to expansive research. </p>
<p>Also, yes, UChicago is making a push to improve its bio sciences and medicine facilities, but don’t forget, ALL of the other top schools are doing the exact same thing. Yale is making huge efforts here, Penn is continually trying to improve upon its already sterling facilities and reputation, etc. None of the top schools are complacent by any means. </p>
<p>I think UChicago has done a great job in improving the numbers that are “easy” to improve. It costs a lot less to get good admissions stats and devote more $ to financial aid than it does to try to go out and get $200M more in funds every year. Cosmetically, UChicago is a lot prettier these days, and the College is in better shape, but the University as a whole still has, welll, holes, just as it did years ago. The fields that will most likely require growth in the next decade - the sciences, medical school, perhaps comp sci, are all not quite first tier programs at this point at UChicago.</p>