Which Is the Most Difficult Medical School to Get Admitted to in the U.S.?

[AgActual]

The title says it all. Which med school is the most difficult to get into in the U.S.?

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[texahn]

Princeton Medical School b/c practically no one gets in

 

[Tatastrophy]

Princeton Medical School b/c practically no one gets in

yea...i heard about their admissions process...in a word "brutal"


to OP....all of them( if you don't have the stats.)

 

[TooMuchResearch]

South Illinois, University of Mississippi, and Mercer, if one is not from Illinois, Mississippi, or Georgia.

 

[GoSpursGo]

That's an incredibly variable question because it completely depends on who you personally are. If you're a non-Cali resident, you might have trouble getting into a California state school; heck, the University of South Dakota won't look at your application if you're not a resident (or otherwise have very strong ties) 😉. If you're a Harvard alum, you might have an easier time getting into Harvard than, say, Hopkins because you have an LOR from a distinguished Harvard prof. Etc.

Every school has different things they're looking for. What might make you a stellar applicant at one school may make you unimpressive at another, even if the two schools are roughly equal in "prestige."

 

[AgActual]

Every school has different things they're looking for. What might make you a stellar applicant at one school may make you unimpressive at another, even if the two schools are roughly equal in "prestige."

Ah, i know that well. I was once looking into clinical psychology PhD programs and one's admission to a university was dependent on really whatever the admission committee members felt like. You could have a perfect GRE score, a 4.0 GPA, 10 years of volunteer work at mental health facilities, glowing letters of recommendation but still be rejected from a school because you were interested in depression research while your interviewer is more interested in anxiety research.

I guess when it comes to some grad schools, its all about where you fit in.

 

[texahn]

Ah, i know that well. I was once looking into clinical psychology PhD programs and one's admission to a university was dependent on really whatever the admission committee members felt like. You could have a perfect GRE score, a 4.0 GPA, 10 years of volunteer work at mental health facilities, glowing letters of recommendation but still be rejected from a school because you were interested in depression research while your interviewer is more interested in anxiety research.

I guess when it comes to some grad schools, its all about where you fit in.

That's for Ph.D. You don't even have to have high GRE scores, just good enough. Volunteer work is not as important as in med school apps.
I think this is obvious b/c research PhDs are selected to bring in $$$ and MDs are selected to bring in $$$ and be doctors

 

[Shinobiz11]

I think Hopkins and Columbia are the hardest.

LOL at Princeton

 

[GoSpursGo]

Ah, i know that well. I was once looking into clinical psychology PhD programs and one's admission to a university was dependent on really whatever the admission committee members felt like. You could have a perfect GRE score, a 4.0 GPA, 10 years of volunteer work at mental health facilities, glowing letters of recommendation but still be rejected from a school because you were interested in depression research while your interviewer is more interested in anxiety research.

I guess when it comes to some grad schools, its all about where you fit in.

Really, it's frustrating but true. When you're applying to med school, there are so many extremely well-qualified applicants--especially at the "top" schools--that ultimately some decisions wind up being essentially arbitrary and based on intangible things like "feelings" about an applicant. Then there are also cases where you may not fit a school's mission; for example, an applicant with an extensive research background might not be all that attractive at a school whose mission is to serve the rural parts of a state. Not all factors are equal to all schools.

 

[Contrarian]

doesn't mayo have a really low acceptance rate? in any case, it was low enough to fail to attract my application money.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

all of them. I'd probably guess JHU, Mayo or Harvard. but in reality all med schools are pretty brutal to get into.

 

[AgActual]

doesn't mayo have a really low acceptance rate? in any case, it was low enough to fail to attract my application money.

Most of the schools i was going to apply to had rather high application fees. And i remember hearing people say things like "i applied to 15 grad schools". I wish i had $700 to blow on application fees.

 

[metallica81788]

Here's your answer if you're going by percentage acceptance rates. Obviously, state residency and number of applications play major roles. I don't know what year this is from, but I think it's within the last 2 or 3.

Percentage (%) of applicants who applied to and were accepted by that medical school:

Alabama

• Alabama 8.65
• South Alabama 6.12

Arizona

• Arizona 18.5

Arkansas

• Arkansas 10.1

California

• Loma Linda 3.69
• Southern Cal-Keck 2.4
• Stanford 1.3
• UC-Davis 2.01
• UC-Irvine 2.22
• UC-San Diego 2.41
• UC-San Francisco 2.74
• UCLA Drew 1.45
• UCLA-Geffen 2.18

Colorado

• Colorado 4.43

Connecticut

• Connecticut 2.97
• Yale 1.93

District of Columbia

• George Washington 1.33
• Georgetown 1.73
• Howard 2.02

Florida

• Florida 4.74
• Florida State 4.98
• Miami-Miller 4.18
• South Florida 4.17

Georgia

• Emory 2.11
• MC Georgia 9.04
• Mercer 11.6
• Morehouse 1.49

Hawaii

• Hawaii-Burns 3.27

Illinois

• Chicago Med-Franklin 1.8
• Chicago-Pritzker 1.37
• Illinois 4.6
• Loyola-Stritch 1.43
• Northwestern-Feinberg 2.28
• Rush 2
• Southern Illinois 6.13

Indiana

• Indiana 8.63

Iowa

• Iowa-Carver 5.11

Kansas

• Kansas 8.55

Kentucky

• Kentucky 5.09
• Louisville 6.6

Louisiana

• LSU New Orleans 18.1
• LSU Shreveport 16.5
• Tulane 2.14

Maryland

• Johns Hopkins 1.94
• Maryland 3.49
• Uniformed Services-Herbert 8.77

Massachusetts

• Boston 1.66
• Harvard 2.55
• Massachusetts 14
• Tufts 1.96

Michigan

• Michigan 2.91
• Michigan State 3.21
• Wayne State 6.81

Minnesota

• Mayo 1.33
• Minnesota 5.38
• Minnesota Duluth 4.28

Mississippi

• Mississippi 41.4

Missouri

• Missouri Columbia 7.07
• Missouri Kansas City n/a
• St Louis 2.77
• Wash U St Louis 3.03

Nebraska

• Creighton 2.22
• Nebraska 8.78

Nevada

• Nevada 5.08

New Hampshire

• Dartmouth 1.4

New Jersey

• UMDNJ New Jersey 4.57
• UMDNJ-RW Johnson 4.91

New Mexico

• New Mexico 13

New York

• Albany 1.61
• Buffalo 3.54
• Columbia 2.21
• Cornell-Weill 1.73
• Einstein 2.47
• Mount Sinai 2.08
• New York Medical 1.69
• New York University 2.25
• Rochester 2.18
• SUNY Downstate 3.47
• SUNY Upstate 3.09
• Stony Brook 3.35

North Carolina

• Duke 1.92
• East Carolina-Brody 8.66
• North Carolina 3.98
• Wake Forest 1.6

North Dakota

• North Dakota 20.3

Ohio

• Case Western 3.35
• Cincinnati 4.08
• Northeastern Ohio 5.56
• Ohio State 4.75
• Toledo 5.13
• Wright State-Boonshoft 3.3

Oklahoma

• Oklahoma 11.2

Oregon

• Oregon 2.62

Pennsylvania

• Drexel 2.13
• Jefferson 2.74
• Penn State 2.04
• Pennsylvania 2.35
• Pittsburgh 2.72
• Temple 1.89

Puerto Rico

• Caribe 6.37
• Ponce 4.92
• Puerto Rico 11.5
• San Juan Bautista 11.9

Rhode Island

• Brown-Alpert 2.06

South Carolina

• MU South Carolina 7.35
• South Carolina 4.23

South Dakota

• South Dakota-Sanford 8.42

Tennessee

• East Tennessee-Quillen 3.66
• Meharry 2.21
• Tennessee 10.5
• Vanderbilt 2.09

Texas

• Baylor 3.61
• Texas A & M 4.5
• Texas Tech-Lubbock 4.72
• UT Galveston 6.42
• UT Houston 6.33
• UT San Antonio 6.26
• UT Southwestern 6.42

Utah

• Utah 7.63

Vermont

• Vermont 1.92

Virginia

• Eastern Virginia 2.31
• Virginia 3.37
• Virginia Commonwealth 3.12

Washington

• U Washington 4.67

West Virginia

• Marshall-Edwards 5.93
• West Virginia 3.66

Wisconsin

• MC Wisconsin 3.3
• Wisconsin 5

 

[ApoK]

Stanford and Mayo have the lowest admissions rate, but I agree this is very variable and subjective.

 

[BlueElmo]

I would guess JHU, Harvard, Mayo, Stanford, UCSF etc the usual top tiered schools.

 

[Contrarian]

those percents seem a little low. I thought most schools had acceptance rates somewhere in the range of 5-8%. I guess not.

 

[bannie22]

id say harvard. cuz of their nonexistant waitlist movement. and the fact that most of the ppl applying there have riduclous app to start off with...
its probably not entirely fair to compare ratio of applied to accepted because ppl with different expectations apply to different places.

 

[metallica81788]

those percents seem a little low. I thought most schools had acceptance rates somewhere in the range of 5-8%. I guess not.

When I first read this, I thought "well mayble they're based on matriculating, not actually accepted."

But here's some math:

Baylor has 3.61% rate, a 176 person class, and accepts about 400 people
176/.0361 = 4875 applications, which is about the correct number
400/.0361 = 11,080 applications, which is way too many

So maybe they are based on matriculation, meaning acceptance percentage is higher.

And if people with correct expectations apply to reasonable places, it balances out. Assuming, of course.

 

[GoSpursGo]

When I first read this, I thought "well mayble they're based on matriculating, not actually accepted."

But here's some math:

Baylor has 3.61% rate, a 176 person class, and accepts about 400 people
176/.0361 = 4875 applications, which is about the correct number
400/.0361 = 11,080 applications, which is way too many

So maybe they are based on matriculation, meaning acceptance percentage is higher.

And if people with correct expectations apply to reasonable places, it balances out. Assuming, of course.

'twould also explain Mayo's incredibly small acceptance percentage, with their small class size and all.

 

[shiftingmirage]

I would say GW since it gets 14k+ apps a year. But like others said, those schools that don't take out of staters, and you're an out of stater, then your chances are 0.

 

[Contrarian]

yeah I recall Mayo in the 2-3% range, which is still really small, but double what's posted above.

 

[FasterThanAll]

So the top 5 hardest to get into, by percentage, is (1) Stanford, (2) GWU and Mayo, (3) Pritzker, (4) Dartmouth, (5) Loyola-Stritch.

Washington U has the highest average MCAT and GPA.

 

[metallica81788]

So the top 5 hardest to get into, by percentage, is (1) Stanford, (2) GWU and Mayo, (3) Pritzker, (4) Dartmouth, (5) Loyola-Stritch.

Washington U has the highest average MCAT and GPA.

True, but think about how many people are horrified of applying there because of an inferiority complex or pointlessness? I was one.

 

[Contrarian]

True, but think about how many people are horrified of applying there because of an inferiority complex or pointlessness? I was one.

same, and location. most people like to stick closer to the coasts.

 

[bannie22]

So the top 5 hardest to get into, by percentage, is (1) Stanford, (2) GWU and Mayo, (3) Pritzker, (4) Dartmouth, (5) Loyola-Stritch.

Washington U has the highest average MCAT and GPA.

yeah.
see. using the percentage doesnt make sense. washu is definitely one of the harder schools to get into! and loyola. really?

compared to harvard? jhu? really? lolz

 

[TheMightySmiter]

According to the stats posted above, UCSF is the easiest Cali state school to get into. So take them with a teaspoon or so of salt.

 

[bannie22]

^yup. definitely have to take into account the type of people who apply, and the number of ppl who apply.... so its not really a good way to differentiate the toughest school to get into.

some schools get tons of applications because its "friendlier". thus it makes them seem harder to get in...

what a paradox

 

[metallica81788]

I've looked at these stats a while ago, and some are misleading.

But if you know a bit about the schools beforehand, you can get what you need to out of them. Loyola gets a ton of apps, BTW.

 

[randombetch]

That list is inaccurate. It says "% accepted," but it shows "% matriculated" - which is different usually by a factor of 1.5 to 2.

ie: UCLA's acceptance rate is around 4.5 not 2.5. Stanford's is around 2.5, not 1.3. Mayo's is around 2, not 1.33.

 

[metallica81788]

That list is inaccurate. It says "% accepted," but it shows "% matriculated" - which is different usually by a factor of 1.5 to 2.

ie: UCLA's acceptance rate is around 4.5 not 2.5. Stanford's is around 2.5, not 1.3. Mayo's is around 2, not 1.33.

Yeah, I know. I figured that out quite a bit of posts ago.

Just take everything and raise it up a bit. It's like looking at the stats in the MSAR.

 

[randombetch]

Oops, should have read the posts before replying.

 

[rockaction]

WAKE FOREST

ksmi got into Hopkins and WashU and didn't get into Wake. clearly, Wake is the winner.

 

[metallica81788]

WAKE FOREST

ksmi got into Hopkins, Vandy and WashU and didn't get into Wake. clearly, Wake is the winner.

You mean so far she didn't get in.

If I had to provide my answers, they would be Mayo, GW/BU/Gtown (purely via # of apps), some other tough schools (Stanford, Columbia).

For me it's hard to tell apart the difference in admissions between the really top tiers - they're all difficult. 😕

 

[rockaction]

Vandy's my other answer. I still cry myself to sleep on that one. It seems the more "connections" you have with the school and faculty, the less likely you are to get in. It's weird. It's like they hate anyone who shows interest in their school.

 

[AgActual]

Vandy's my other answer. I still cry myself to sleep on that one. It seems the more "connections" you have with the school and faculty, the less likely you are to get in. It's weird. It's like they hate anyone who shows interest in their school.

After i was rejected from the University of Illinois in Champaign, for my undergrad degree, i never became attached to another university. That was painful. Someone on the outside would think it is ridiculous to get so depressed out being rejected from a university but it does hurt. I am still upset by it, 4 years later. It will always be that "what could have been..."

 

[45408]

doesn't mayo have a really low acceptance rate? in any case, it was low enough to fail to attract my application money.

They've also got like 30 people in each class, whereas my school had 200.


Anyways, the hardest schools to get into are the ones that only take in-state applicants, and you're out-of-state. You don't stand a chance at that point.

 

[avo]

After i was rejected from the University of Illinois in Champaign, for my undergrad degree, i never became attached to another university. That was painful. Someone on the outside would think it is ridiculous to get so depressed out being rejected from a university but it does hurt. I am still upset by it, 4 years later. It will always be that "what could have been..."

I totally agree. I am not a crying type of guy, but I came as close as possible to shedding tears when I did not get into my choice undergraduate institution, without actually breaking down in front of my family. Going into medical school now, I am keeping a much more open mind. There are also many more medical schools that I am simply willing to go too, because I'm more interested in medicine than I am with location/prestige/whatever like I was during my applications for undergrad.

It also helps that medical schools outside of the top 10 or 20 are still fantastic and nearly every medical school in the country has plenty of money flowing through it.