The amount of money an institution receives for biomedical research and graduate student training is one of the most important factors to consider when evaluating graduate programs in the biomedical sciences. Institutional funding substantially affects the quality of a graduate school education, impacting everything from the quality of the faculty the institution attracts, to the level of support (monetary and otherwise!) you receive as a graduate student.

Since the majority of biomedical research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the statistics compiled annually by the NIH are useful in determining which universities have strong research programs. The following are the top-ranked medical schools^*‡ in the country in terms of total grants for the 2005 fiscal year. The amount of the research awards, in millions, is given in parentheses. The schools are sorted by dollar amount here, but you can also use the map below to view the top-ranked institutions by region. For your convenience, the list is hotlinked to university websites so that you can learn more about what they have to offer.

Johns Hopkins University ($449.4)

University of Pennsylvania ($399.3)

University of California -
                San Francisco ($398.2)

Washington University ($377.6)

Duke University ($349.9)

University of Washington ($308.8)

University of California -
                Los Angeles ($303.8)

Yale University ($298.3)

University of Pittsburgh ($287.5)

University of Michigan ($265)

Stanford University ($264.4)

Case Western Reserve University ($260.5)

Baylor College of Medicine ($256.8)

Columbia University ($226.6)

Vanderbilt University ($244.2)

University of California - San Diego ($238)

University of North Carolina -
                Chapel Hill ($217.4)

University of Alabama -
                Birmingham ($191.2)

Emory University ($190.3)

Mount Sinai School of Medicine at
                New York University ($174.4)

University of Texas -
                Southwestern ($170.5)

University of Colorado –
                Health Sciences Center ($170.3)

University of Chicago Pritzker School of                 Medicine ($169.6)

Oregon Health Sciences University                 ($168.6)

University of Maryland School of Medicine                 ($164.4)

Johns Hopkins University ($20.4)

University of Pennsylvania ($19.4)

University of Washington ($17.1)

Yale University ($17.1)

Stanford University ($14.9)

University of Michigan ($14.8)

University of California -
                San Francisco ($14.2)

Washington University ($13.6)

Vanderbilt University ($13.0)

Columbia University ($13.0)

^* These are the top 25 of 123 U.S. medical schools.

^‡You may wonder why we highlight medical school funding. After all, you’re interested in Ph.D. programs. The reason is that many graduate programs in the biomedical sciences (e.g. Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Physiology, etc.) are sponsored by traditional medical school departments. Consequently, medical school funding gives an accurate ‘snapshot’ of relevant research funding.