The @usnews rankings are always questionable at best, but this year's newly released version, which rank #publichealth sub-disciplines, is particularly egregious. Time for a 🧵. For the first time, the rankings include not only an overall ranking of schools of public health, but also of disciplines within public health including biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, health policy, and social/behavioral sciences.

We (epi & biostat folks) have a major conflict of interest when it comes to evaluating COVID research that I’m not sure we’ve fully acknowledged. 1/ Mostly, when we assess studies or evidence, we are at arm’s length from the problem we’re studying. Yes, we may know people who have a condition, but our findings don’t have implications for our lives. 2/

In 2 weeks, @PublicHealthUMN will remove its number from ETS, going #GRExit for all programs. Our decision was largely based on the results of a RANDOMIZED assessment of how GRE scores influence admissions decisions.

What we did and what we found: a thread. 1/n Quick #GRExit background: there is published literature looking at whether GRE scores predict success in grad school. Most show it doesn't (much), but it's tough to define/measure "success", and selection bias clouds interpretation of study results. 2/n

Grad school application season is just around the corner. So, it’s time for a thread on #grexit. Spoiler: I’m on the fence. Here’s why. 1/ First, let’s limit the conversation: I want to talk about #grexit for PhD admissions in (bio)statistics. Why just PhD? Admit rates are (much) lower, and the “financial barrier” argument for #grexit is more relevant for a fully-funded program. 2/