Why so many people apply to DC schools?

[Pupilindenial]

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Hi everybody!

I recently found out me and my family are moving to DC after I graduate from college, so I started to take a look at DC schools. According to AAMC data, George Washington and Georgetown received ~14K applications each for the 2017-2018 cycle, more than any other school.
I was not expecting that and I'm not really sure why so many people seem interested in those schools.
Granted, I'm a foreigner, so maybe there's some obvious reason that I just don't know yet.

Do you know what makes those schools so popular?

Thanks! 🙂

 

[seren1051]

Not really because of DC - they're private schools that accepts lots of (or mostly) OOS students. Their median MCAT and GPA falls around the middle of the pack, meaning lots of low-stat applicants will throw them in for reaches while high-stat applicants will throw them in for safeties. You'll see the same thing happening to Jefferson, Tufts, Drexel, Temple, Albany etc.

 

[PursuingHappy]

I currently live in the DMV area, and I will say that there are a lot of pre-meds here and many are just comfortable staying in the same area for school. I second the numbers being another reason as well.

Edit: DC is also an amazing city for people in their 20s. Lots of attractions, bars, and great places to eat. Only downside is the expense.

 

[Goro]

14,257 George Washington


That would appear to be the case.

There are 11 schools that got over 10,000 applications last cycle. These represent 131,535 individual applications out of the 816,152 application in 2017-2018 cycle or 16.12% of the total AMCAS applications . In aggregate they have 2,236 matriculants of the total 21,338 across all US MD schools or 10.48%. List below with: " # of Applications" "school" "(matriculants)" (data from https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/factstablea1.pdf

14,257 George Washington (175)
14,062 Georgetown (198)
13,827 Drexel (256)
12,338 New York Medical (216)
11,928 Chicago Med Franklin (189)
11,405 UCLA-Geffen (175)
11,355 Loyola-Stritch (165)
10,951 Tufts (210)
10,782 Temple-Katz (208)
10,578 Boston (172)
10,052 Jefferson-Kimmel (272)

For BU and UCLA, location, location, location.

 

[seren1051]

For BU and UCLA, location, location, location.

People like Boston? shocking