10 Most Affordable Medical Schools for Out-of-State Students
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Medical school applicants worried about costs can find a few out-of-state tuition deals at state institutions.
Public medical schools charged out-of-state students an average of around $58,000 for tuition and fees in the 2017-2018 academic year, according to data submitted by 69 ranked public institutions to U.S. News in an annual survey. That's nearly 6 percent more than the average price tag students paid at private medical schools -- $54,877 in 2017-2018 -- according to data submitted by 52 private institutions.
[Read: 10 Affordable Public Medical Schools for In-State Students.]
However, 26 public medical schools priced their out-of-state rates lower than the average tuition and fees charged at private medical schools, per U.S. News data. Half of these schools are in Texas and California. In fact, seven of the 10 public medical schools with the least expensive out-of-state rates are located in the Lone Star State.
The University of Central Florida tops the list, as it charged out-of-state students $31,063 in tuition and fees for 2017-2018, which was close to the in-state rate of $29,680.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, out-of-state students at the University of Illinois College of Medicine shelled out the most of any public school, forking over $97,198 in tuition and fees for the 2017-2018 school year. The school's out-of-state rate was almost double the in-state price -- $50,020.
In fact, there are 15 public schools that charge out-of-state students tuition rates that are more than the most expensive private medical school in 2017-2018, Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Columbia charged $66,257 in tuition and fees to students who didn't qualify for any need-based financial aid.
[Read: 10 Least Expensive Private Medical Schools.]
Most of the public medical schools that submitted data to U.S. News charged more than $55,000 for out-of-state tuition and fees in 2017-2018.
Below is a list of the 10 ranked public medical schools with the lowest out-of-state tuition and fees in 2017-2018. One school -- the University of Texas--Rio Grande Valley -- ranked in the bottom one-fourth of both the 2019 Best Medical Schools for Research and the 2019 Best Medical Schools for Primary Care. 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) | Out-of-state tuition & fees (2017-2018) | U.S. News research rank | U.S. News primary care rank |
$31,063 | 86 (tie) | RNP* | |
$31,194 | 93 (tie) | 68 | |
$31,398 | RNP | RNP | |
University of Texas Health Science Center--Houston (McGovern) | $31,754 | 52 (tie) | 85 (tie) |
$33,220 | 62 (tie) | 72 (tie) | |
$33,621 | 26 (tie) | 19 | |
$34,113 | 66 (tie) | 85 (tie) | |
$34,854 | RNP | 90 | |
$39,089 | 32 (tie) | 26 (tie) | |
$43,545 | 28 | 14 (tie) |
* 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 tuition and fees 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 tuition and fees data above are correct as of June 12, 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.
