10 Medical Schools With the Lowest Acceptance Rates
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Getting into a top-notch college can be difficult. That's doubly true when it comes to medical school.
While the lowest acceptance rate at the undergraduate level comes in at 4% at Stanford University in California, that's higher than at any of the 10 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates, where the average rate is 2.5%.
Florida State University's medical school is the most selective, with a 2.2% acceptance rate in fall 2019. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center--Shreveport, which admitted 27.1% of applicants. Nationally, among the 122 ranked schools that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average medical school acceptance rate for 2019 was 6.7%.
[See: 14 Mistakes That Can Keep You Out of Medical School.]
An interest in med school is a no-brainer for career-minded students. Employment options and salaries are robust, with physicians and surgeons estimated to earn a median pay of $208,000 or more per year in an industry that is growing faster than average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Positions in the health care field also round out the top 11 spots in the U.S. News rankings of Best Paying Jobs.
Each medical school on this list saw thousands of applicants but admitted only a sliver of those. At Florida State, only 161 of 7,313 applicants were admitted. The David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California--Los Angeles had the most applicants among these 10 schools, admitting 311 of 13,101, or 2.4%.
[Read: Why It's Hard to Get Into Medical School Despite Doctor Shortages.]
UCLA was the only medical school on this list to receive more than 10,000 applicants and admit more than 300 students.
These schools are geographically diverse. With two medical schools on this list, California is the only state to appear more than once among a group that stretches coast to coast.
Below is a list of the 10 ranked medical schools that accepted the lowest percentage of applicants in fall 2019. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
School (name) (state) | Total applicants | Total acceptances | Acceptance rate | U.S. News research rank | U.S. News primary care rank |
7,313 | 161 | 2.2% | 94-122 | 94-122 | |
7,506 | 172 | 2.3% | 4 (tie) | 30 | |
9,940 | 229 | 2.3% | 62 (tie) | 63 (tie) | |
4,483 | 103 | 2.3% | 81 (tie) | 94-122 | |
7,265 | 172 | 2.4% | 6 (tie) | 38 (tie) | |
13,101 | 311 | 2.4% | 6 (tie) | 11 | |
9,167 | 230 | 2.5% | 94-122 | 94-122 | |
8,937 | 219 | 2.5% | 4 (tie) | 35 (tie) | |
9,995 | 276 | 2.8% | 38 (tie) | 35 (tie) | |
5,583 | 156 | 2.8% | 84 (tie) | 58 (tie) |
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 188 medical schools for our 2019 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 comes 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 acceptance rate data above is correct as of March 17, 2020.
