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Completing medical school is difficult. But getting accepted into a program is also a challenge.
Among the 118 ranked medical schools that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average acceptance rate for the 2016-2017 school year was 5.8 percent. At the 10 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates for 2016-2017, competition was even fiercer: An average of only 2.6 percent of applicants were admitted.
The Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Minnesota once again tops the list with an acceptance rate for 2016-2017 of just 1.8 percent — the same as the previous year. Only 86 of the 4,802 who applied were admitted.
[See the 2018 Best Medical Schools for Research.]
The school that follows — Georgetown University in the District of Columbia — had the most applicants of any on the list, at 14,377. Georgetown had a 2.5 percent acceptance rate, admitting the same percentage as Stanford University in California.
Including Stanford, four of the 10 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates are in California. Three of those are University of California public institutions.
All of the medical schools on the list also appeared on last year’s list, with just slight differences in the percentages of applicants accepted at each for fall 2015 and fall 2016.
[Discover how to determine whether to apply early decision to medical school.]
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Oklahoma State University, which accepted 14 percent of applicants for 2016-2017.
Below is a list of the 10 ranked medical schools where the lowest proportion of applicants for fall 2016 were admitted. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School (name) (state) | Total applicants | Total acceptances | Acceptance rate | U.S. News research rank | U.S. News primary care rank |
| Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (MN) | 4,802 | 86 | 1.8% | 20 | 31 (tie) |
| Georgetown University (DC) | 14,377 | 359 | 2.5% | 45 (tie) | RNP* |
| Stanford University (CA) | 7,512 | 187 | 2.5% | 2 | 41 (tie) |
| Florida State University | 6,503 | 170 | 2.6% | RNP | RNP |
| George Washington University (DC) | 12,393 | 326 | 2.6% | 59 (tie) | 88 (tie) |
| Wake Forest University (NC) | 9,115 | 238 | 2.6% | 53 (tie) | 74 (tie) |
| Brown University (Alpert) (RI) | 10,672 | 293 | 2.7% | 31 (tie) | 21 (tie) |
| University of California–Davis | 7,423 | 202 | 2.7% | 45 (tie) | 18 (tie) |
| University of California–Los Angeles (Geffen) | 12,081 | 324 | 2.7% | 11 | 6 |
| University of California–San Diego | 7,990 | 240 | 3% | 18 (tie) | 12 |
* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all rank-eligible medical and osteopathic schools. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Medical School Compass to find admissions data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 170 medical schools for our 2016 survey of research and primary care programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Medical Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The admissions data above are correct as of March 16, 2017.
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10 Medical Schools With the Lowest Acceptance Rates originally appeared on usnews.com
