The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Most medical schools receive thousands of applications every year, and that’s one reason why getting accepted is so challenging.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, there were 53,029 prospective med students who applied to a U.S. medical school for the 2016-2017 school year. A total of 696,847 applications were submitted to enter the fall 2016 class among the 118 ranked medical schools that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
[See the 10 med schools with the highest MCAT scores.]
The majority of the schools that received the most applications had more than 10,000 applicants for the 2016-2017 school year. While the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pennsylvania had the most applications at 16,187, the school’s 8.2 percent acceptance rate in fall 2016 is much higher compared with the admissions rate at most medical schools. For the 2016-2017 school year, 5.8 percent of applicants were offered admittance.
But some of the med schools that made this list are more competitive when it comes to admissions.
In fact, four of the schools on the list — George Washington University and Georgetown University, both in the District of Columbia; Brown University in Rhode Island; and the University of California–Los Angeles — were among the medical schools with the lowest admissions rates for fall 2016. These schools accepted less than 3 percent in 2016-2017.
[Discover the top undergraduate majors at the best medical schools.]
Among the 10 medical schools with the largest applicant pools, the average was 11,975 — significantly higher than the average among all schools that submitted these data. At 5,905 applicants, the overall average was less than half of that at the top 10.
The school that received the fewest number of applications for the fall 2016 entering class was the University of South Dakota: 859.
Below is a list of the 10 medical schools that received the most applications for fall 2016. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| Medical school (name) (state) | Applicants (fall 2016) | U.S. News research rank | U.S. News primary care rank |
| Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (PA) | 16,187 | RNP* | RNP |
| Georgetown University (DC) | 14,377 | 45 (tie) | RNP |
| George Washington University (DC) | 12,393 | 59 (tie) | 88 (tie) |
| University of California–Los Angeles (Geffen) | 12,081 | 11 | 6 |
| Drexel University (PA) | 11,532 | 83 (tie) | RNP |
| Western University of Health Sciences (CA) | 11,178 | RNP | RNP |
| Thomas Jefferson University (Kimmel) (PA) | 10,726 | 53 (tie) | 51 (tie) |
| Brown University (Alpert) (RI) | 10,672 | 31 (tie) | 21 (tie) |
| Temple University (Katz) (PA) | 10,623 | 55 | 84 (tie) |
| New York Medical College | 9,978 | RNP | RNP |
* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all medical 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 Aug. 22, 2017.
More from U.S. News
10 Least Expensive Private Medical Schools
5 Ways Nonscience Courses Prepare Students for Medical School
Flexibility Is Key for International Prospective Medical Students
10 Medical Schools With the Most Applicants originally appeared on usnews.com
