COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University’s College of Medicine moved up in the latest U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of the nation’s top medical schools. Ohio State ranks 32nd in the magazine’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools” edition, up five positions from last year - the greatest increase of any of the top 50 schools.

The 2007 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools was released in April.

“The advance in rankings reflects the growing national awareness of the quality of Ohio State’s medical school, and the tremendous growth in opportunities available here for students, residents, faculty and staff,” remarked Dr. Fred Sanfilippo, OSU senior vice president and executive dean for health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine.

“We continue to attract some of the best and brightest students from around the nation because they know they’re going to get an exceptional education at an academic medical center that has breakthroughs in research and patient care taking place every day.”

The U.S. News rankings are based on surveys of 125 medical and 19 osteopathic medicine schools using a formula that weighs several criteria, including student academic quality and selectivity, faculty resources, institutional reputation and research activity.

Helping boost Ohio State’s position in the most recent rankings was an increase in the “peer assessment” ratings of OSU’s medical school. This assessment of quality comes from medical school deans and residency program directors nationally, and makes up 40 percent of the overall ranking. Ohio State is also now ranked in the Top 25 of all schools nationally for the academic quality of its entering student class.

“The increase in our peer assessment scores from education leaders means that Ohio State’s national stature in academic medicine is rising. More people are aware of the outstanding quality of our educational programs and our medical school graduates, who can be found taking care of patients, teaching and doing research at top medical schools and hospitals around the nation,” added Sanfilippo.