10 Medical Schools With the Lowest Acceptance Rates
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Getting accepted into medical school is tough -- even for premed students with high GPAs.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the 50,000-plus medical school applicants in 2017-2018 had an average GPA of 3.56. Experts say admissions officers at highly selective medical schools often screen applicants based on GPA and MCAT scores because of the large of volume of applications they receive.
[See 10 costs to expect when applying to medical school.]
The average acceptance rate for the 2017-2018 school year was 7 percent, according to data submitted by 120 ranked medical schools to U.S. News in an annual survey. It was even tougher to receive an admissions offer among the 10 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates, where only 2.8 percent of applicants on average were admitted.
The Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Minnesota tops the list as the most selective medical school, with an acceptance rate of 2.1 percent for 2017-2018. This is a slight increase compared with the prior year's rate of 1.8 percent. Of the more than 8,000 applicants who applied to the Mayo Clinic, only 168 received an acceptance letter.
[Explore medical schools where graduates are likely to get their first-choice residency.]
Georgetown University in the District of Columbia had the most applicants of any medical school on the list, at 14,062. Georgetown accepted 2.9 percent of applicants on average, admitting the same percentage as George Washington University, also in the District, and the University of California--Davis.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine accepted nearly 25 percent of applicants for 2017-2018.
Below is a list of the 10 ranked medical schools where the lowest proportion of applicants for fall 2017 were admitted. 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 |
8,068 | 168 | 2.1% | 6 (tie) | 32 (tie) | |
7,258 | 167 | 2.3% | 3 (tie) | 32 (tie) | |
5,866 | 151 | 2.6% | RNP* | RNP | |
9,281 | 261 | 2.8% | 52 (tie) | 61 (tie) | |
11,432 | 335 | 2.9% | 62 (tie) | 79 (tie) | |
14,062 | 403 | 2.9% | 46 (tie) | RNP | |
6,943 | 204 | 2.9% | 39 (tie) | 10 (tie) | |
11,417 | 362 | 3.2% | 8 (tie) | 4 | |
9,922 | 322 | 3.2% | 32 (tie) | 39 (tie) | |
7,972 | 258 | 3.2% | 22 | 17 |
* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all rank-eligible 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 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 177 medical schools for our 2017 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 come 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 admissions data above are correct as of April 3, 2018.
Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.
