10 Med Schools That Get the Most Applicants

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Some may consider this a troubling statistic: The U.S. could face a shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

But last year, at least, there was some cause for hope.

The number of students who applied to and enrolled in medical schools hit a record high in 2013, with the number of applicants increasing 6.1 percent to 48,014, according to the AAMC. Experts say the application bounce is a result of the creation of new medical schools and existing schools' efforts to expand their class sizes.

The 10 medical schools that received the most applications in 2013 were all on the East Coast and all private, according to data submitted to U.S. News in 2013 by 114 ranked schools.

The two schools with the most applications were in Pennsylvania: Drexel University College of Medicine, which received 13,620 applications, and Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which received 12,901 applications.

[Elevate a med school application with research experience.]

Only one of the schools listed ranked higher than No. 20 in the 2015 Best Medical Schools rankings: New York University, which placed 19 in the U.S. News research rankings.

The top 10 schools were identical to last year's top 10 list, though some changed places. Last year, George Washington University topped the list. This year it fell to the fifth place.

At the top 10 schools, an average of 10,645 students applied -- that's more than twice as high as the average for all schools that reported application data to U.S. News. Those 114 schools received an average of 5,066 applications.

[ Bolster a medical school application with volunteer work.]

Below are the top 10 medical schools that receive the most applications.

* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all 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 information on applications, 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 153 medical schools for our 2013 survey of research and primary care programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's 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 comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The application data above are correct as of April 8, 2014.