What are the best and worst states for applying to med school?

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Tier 1: Texas
Tier 2: Vermont, Florida

Bottom Tier: California


Could someone else fill out this table? Just curious and bored waiting for II's.
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Where would PA fit? It has plenty of schools, but none are public or even have in-state bias ugh.
 
I would put PA and IL at tier: 3 - plenty of schools but still only about 25% of IS applicants matriculate IS
 
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Anyone know where MA would fit? 😳
 
cantankerous said:
Where would PA fit? It has plenty of schools, but none are public or even have in-state bias ugh.
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PA I believe has the 14th highest percentage of applicants who matriculate IS in US. And that's without a state school. And many of the states ahead of them are very small and don't have tons of applicants. So it fairs pretty well.
 
You know, I think Washington DC residency is probably in an even worse position than Californian !

"Best" state might depend a lot on app quality too. If you're a solid app, being from WWAMI is huge because now you stand a shot at U of W. If you're a less competitive app, you would probably want to be from somewhere in the South like Mississippi.
 
The best ones for my money: MS, ND, SD, WV, SC

Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Nevada are also all pretty damn lucky.

Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee are probably right after that.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia are probably in the next tier.

After that, you have states with a bunch of schools but where the benefit for those in that state isn't as great like New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Illinois, Virginia.

The other thing to consider is tuition. Being in PA for ex might make things easier to get into an MD school but the tuition of all their schools is hideous. Likewise NC doesn't have all that many of their residents stay IS but if you do damn you got it good with Brody or UNC for tuition.
 
GrapesofRath said:
The best ones for my money: MS, ND, SD, WV, SC

Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Nevada are also all pretty damn lucky.

Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma are probably right after that.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia are probably in the next tier.

After that, you have states with a bunch of schools but where the benefit for those in that state isn't as great like New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Illinois, Virginia.

The other thing to consider is tuition. Being in PA for ex might make things easier to get into an MD school but the tuition of all their schools is hideous. Likewise NC doesn't have all that many of their residents stay IS but if you do damn you got it good with Brody or UNC for tuition.
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Brb moving to north dakota
 
GrapesofRath said:
The best ones for my money: MS, ND, SD, WV, SC

Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Nevada are also all pretty damn lucky.

Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma are probably right after that.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia are probably in the next tier.

After that, you have states with a bunch of schools but where the benefit for those in that state isn't as great like New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Illinois, Virginia.

The other thing to consider is tuition. Being in PA for ex might make things easier to get into an MD school but the tuition of all their schools is hideous. Likewise NC doesn't have all that many of their residents stay IS but if you do damn you got it good with Brody or UNC for tuition.
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Where does MA fit in your tier list?
 
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Definitely hardest one would be CA, and easiest would be Florida/ Texas! Definitely agree!
 
efle said:
Iowa deserves some more love, it's a very solid school which interviews 83% of instate apps
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Only 25% of their applicants end up matriculating IS though. That's a pretty "meh" number and says alot about how Iowa is a pretty competitive school. It isn't one of those southern schools with 3.6/28-29 medians, I think Iowa's is around 3.85/32-33 median. Getting a II does you know good if you don't end up getting in!
 
Would moving states to change residency status be a smart idea? Or do schools still view you as out of state because you only recently became a resident of their state?
 
GrapesofRath said:
Only 25% of their applicants end up matriculating IS though. That's a pretty "meh" number and says alot about how Iowa is a pretty competitive school. It isn't one of those southern schools with 3.6/28-29 medians, I think Iowa's is around 3.85/32-33 median. Getting a II does you know good if you don't end up getting in!
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But we don't know how many get in, only how many matriculate. Need to know % yield. The average MCAT of Iowa residents was more than 4 points above Mississippi residents last year for example, so I'd expect Iowans to much more often have options other than their state school relative to some of those Southerners.
 
TheMadScientist_AZ said:
Careful about this, some states require a certain length of time living in the state prior to application. I believe Texas is 12 months prior to the October 1st application deadline.
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Ah gotcha, thanks for the heads up! I was just wondering if interviewers would judge you for being a recent resident
 
efle said:
But we don't know how many get in, only how many matriculate. Need to know % yield. The average MCAT of Iowa residents was more than 4 points above Mississippi residents last year for example, so I'd expect Iowans to much more often have options other than their state school relative to some of those Southerners.
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Well the fact that 64% of Iowa residents don't get into a medical school at all doesn't really speak to the idea that the state is full of top applicants
 
GrapesofRath said:
Well the fact that 64% of Iowa residents don't get into a medical school at all doesn't really speak to the idea that the state is full of top applicants
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Not full of great applicants, just more full than Mississippi. In other words if you swapped the populations I don't think we have grounds to say the app / matriculation ratios would remain similar. It's the fact that Mississippi with much lower numbers manages to send more people to med school (just under half) that convinces me they're a better state to be premed in! I wonder how Iowa's 37% getting in compares to other states with similarly competitive populations (avg MCAT 29+) though, hmm
 
mrspecialist said:
Definitely hardest one would be CA, and easiest would be Florida/ Texas! Definitely agree!
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If you look at the table that was posted you will see that several states are worse that California in terms of %matriculated in state and %that didn't matriculate at all.
 
States I see worse than CA: WA, UT, AZ, and NH. Several other states matriculate a smaller %in state but matriculate a higher % as a whole so I didn't include those. Also didn't include states without med schools.
 
Illinois sucks. Yeah there are plenty of schools but only two of them have any kind of IS bias, and one of those two only accepts people from Southern Illinois. And the other one is insanely expensive for a public school.
 
Jawjuh isn't terrible. We have 5 schools, 3-4 of which have regional or in-state bias. We send lots of students to surrounding states, as well. Mercer only takes IS applicants.
 
Tier 1: Vermont, Florida, West Virginia, South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, North Dakota

(Lots of indistinguishable in between)

Bottom Tier: California, Maryland, Rhode Island, WWAMI states


My 2c
 
efle said:
Not full of great applicants, just more full than Mississippi. In other words if you swapped the populations I don't think we have grounds to say the app / matriculation ratios would remain similar. It's the fact that Mississippi with much lower numbers manages to send more people to med school (just under half) that convinces me they're a better state to be premed in! I wonder how Iowa's 37% getting in compares to other states with similarly competitive populations (avg MCAT 29+) though, hmm
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Keep in mind that Mississippi is likely to have more URM candidates that Iowa does. That could skew things to make it appear that anyone in Mississippi has a better chance than an Iowa resident & that may not be true after controlling for race.
 
md-2020 said:
Tier 1: Vermont, Florida, West Virginia, South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, North Dakota

(Lots of indistinguishable in between)

Bottom Tier: California, Maryland, Rhode Island, WWAMI states


My 2c
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Not sure FL belongs in that category
 
rilte4 said:
Not sure FL belongs in that category
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Well I mean you got like 6 IS schools, one of which has a 28 avg MCAT....and a couple more privates and DOs.
 
md-2020 said:
Well I mean you got like 6 IS schools, one of which has a 28 avg MCAT....and a couple more privates and DOs.
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Yeah I wouldn't include Fl anywhere near that category only 21% of their applicants matriculate IS which is a pretty low number.
 
the reason Cali is low down is because it has one of the worst % while also having stronger stats than the fellow states at the bottom. If you could somehow adjust for differences in stuff like median MCAT I bet Cali comes out worst.
 
Monster_Cat said:
Worst = california
best = texas, they opened 3 medical schools this year, and in a special program you are guaranteed interviews at every TX school and an acceptance from ONE. I wish I had that in CA, instead all we get for new schools is northstate. 🙁
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Hi,
Texas Resident here!

Just wondering, UT Dell and UTRGV just opened. What's the 3rd school you are referring to?
 
TheMadScientist_AZ said:
Maybe they mean the school that is due to open up in Corpus Christi? I thought that one didn't start admitting until next year though...
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There's a school opening in Corpus Christi?!!!! Whatttt?! I did not hear about this lol
 
Monster_Cat said:
UNT opened a MD branch or something. there's also corpus cristi
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Oh, UNT and TCU's school doesn't actually open until like 2017. And I'm pretty sure there isn't a school opening in Corpus. Although UIW is opening a new DO school which was supposed to open this year but got postponed. But anyways nevermind that! I was just wondering 🙂
 
Monster_Cat said:
Fair enough, either way it's awesome you're a TX resident. Your state really cares about recruiting future physicians and makes the process considerably more reasonable for applicants.
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You're sure right about that! Not many states open up 4 new schools within a span of 2-3 years.
 
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