16 Medical Schools That Trained Famous Doctors
Discover medical schools that trained influential physicians.
While many people hope to become physicians, only a minority of candidates are accepted into U.S. medical schools. Low acceptance rates, coupled with the years of demanding training required to obtain a medical license, are significant hurdles that future doctors must overcome. Though the path to a medical career is rarely easy, if you're inspired by those who have made long-lasting contributions -- from creating vaccines to identifying diseases previously unknown to science -- you'll find hope in the stories of successful doctors. Read on to discover where 16 notable doctors attended medical school.
Dr. Virginia Apgar
School where she earned her medical degree:Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City
U.S. News research rank: 4 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 66
Apgar, the creator and namesake of the Apgar score, a test grade that is assigned to newborn infants based on their vital signs, was a trailblazing anesthesiologist. Her revolutionary method for quickly and accurately assessing a baby's health shortly after childbirth is now the standard of care, and it is a practice that medical experts say has dramatically reduced infant mortality. She was the first female physician to be appointed a professor at Columbia University's medical school.
Dr. Anthony Atala
School where he earned his medical degree: University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky
U.S. News research rank: 75 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 74 (tie)
Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and chair of the Wake Forest Baptist Health Department of Urology, grows human cells, tissues and organs, and he is attempting to develop solutions to the international shortage of donor organs. A native of Peru, Atala has won a bevy of prizes for his innovation, including the World Technology Award in Health and Medicine.
Dr. Nir Barzilai
School where he earned his medical degree:Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel
U.S. News research rank: N/A (This school is based in Israel and was not included in the U.S. News medical school rankings.)
U.S. News primary care rank: N/A
U.S. News Best Global Universities rank: 264 (tie)
Barzilai, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, conducted genetic studies of centenarians, which revealed the genes that are correlated with human longevity. His research focuses on identifying the genetic and nutritional factors that influence a person's life span, and his discoveries are being used to create treatments for age-related health conditions like diabetes. Barzilai is a professor of medicine and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and director of its Institute for Aging Research.
Dr. Aaron T. Beck
School where he earned his medical degree:Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut
U.S. News research rank: 10
U.S. News primary care rank: 59 (tie)
Beck, a revolutionary in the field of psychiatry, invented the cognitive behavioral therapy method, a technique that therapists use to help patients break negative thinking patterns and improve their behaviors. He also developed the Beck Hopelessness Scale, a risk assessment scoring system that therapists use to gauge the suicide risk of their patients. Beck is a university professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Harvey Cushing
School where he earned his medical degree:Harvard Medical School in Boston
U.S. News research rank: 1
U.S. News primary care rank: 8
Cushing was an influential brain surgeon who invented many surgery techniques that are now common, including a method of operating with local anesthesia. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of neurosurgery" and his discoveries helped to reduce mortality rates among brain surgery patients. A fourth-generation physician, he discovered the disease named after him, Cushing's syndrome -- a disorder of the pituitary gland. The Cleveland native won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of the physician Sir William Osler, one of his teachers and mentors.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci
School where he earned his medical degree: Cornell University's Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City
U.S. News research rank: 19 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 51 (tie)
Fauci has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, and in that capacity has advised multiple U.S. presidents. He oversaw the scientific search for diagnostic tools, therapies and vaccines for the COVID-19 virus, and he has invented effective treatment regimens for multiple serious diseases that are fatal without treatment. Fauci has also made discoveries that reveal how untreated HIV/AIDS ravages human immune systems, and he contributed to the development of medications that extend the lifespans and improve quality of life among HIV/AIDS patients.
Dr. Sigmund Freud
School where he earned his medical degree: University of Vienna
U.S. News research rank: N/A (This school is based in Austria and was not included in the U.S. News medical school rankings.)
U.S. News primary care rank: N/A
U.S. News Best Global Universities rank: 195 (tie)
Freud, a neurologist, developed the practice of psychoanalysis and talk therapy that is now frequently used to treat mental illness and provide comfort to individuals enduring personal difficulties, including those who are grieving a loss. He contributed ideas surrounding personality, memory, intellectual development and unconscious motivations which have left a lasting legacy in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. As a Jew in Europe during a time of fascism, Freud faced persecution that shaped his view of the human psyche. He fled the Nazis in 1938, moving from Vienna to London, and died in exile in 1939.
Dr. Michael Gottlieb
School where he earned his medical degree:University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York
U.S. News research rank: 36 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 14
Gottlieb and his colleagues identified Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, commonly known as AIDS, as a disease in 1981, when he wrote a report alerting the federal agency now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the public health threat posed by this disease. Since then, he has treated HIV and AIDS patients and has been a vocal advocate for people with AIDS-related conditions. Gottlieb is a full-time clinician with APLA Health and an associate clinical professor of medicine with the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California--Los Angeles.
Dr. Alice Hamilton
School where she earned her medical degree: University of Michigan Medical School
U.S. News research rank: 15 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 15
Hamilton -- an expert on the prevention, identification and removal of occupational health hazards -- was an influential public health scholar in the early 20th century who advocated for workplace safety. She was the first female professor at Harvard Medical School, where she was appointed to teach in 1919. Hamilton produced many reports for the U.S. federal government which documented the high risk of death within dangerous jobs, and her research inspired work safety legislation at both the state and national level. On the 25th anniversary of Hamilton's death, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp with her picture.
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
School where she earned her medical degree:University of Zurich
U.S. News research rank: N/A (This school is based in Switzerland and was not included in the U.S. News medical school rankings.)
U.S. News primary care rank: N/A
U.S. News Best Global Universities rank: 62 (tie)
Kübler-Ross, a pioneering psychiatrist and a leader in the hospice care movement, was the author of a book that revolutionized the way doctors treat terminal patients. The book, "On Death and Dying," identified the five stages of grief as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This conceptual model is now commonly used in psychiatry to assess how well terminally ill people are coping with their diagnosis. She had become a doctor in defiance of her father, who had forbidden pursuit of a medical career due to her gender.
Dr. Victor McKusick
School where he earned his medical degree:Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore
U.S. News research rank: 7 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 59 (tie)
McKusick, a cardiologist and Johns Hopkins medical school professor who the National Institutes of Health website describes as the "founding father of medical genetics," was known for his efforts to map the human genome. He discovered the genetic cause of numerous inheritable diseases, including Marfan syndrome and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. McKusick was a founding president of the Human Genome Organization, a group that contributed to the Human Genome Project. The Maine native was awarded a bevy of prizes for his scholarship, including the National Medal of Science.
Dr. Maria Montessori
School where she earned her medical degree: Sapienza University of Rome
U.S. News research rank: N/A (This school is based in Italy and was not included in the U.S. News medical school rankings.)
U.S. News primary care rank: N/A
U.S. News Best Global Universities rank: 114 (tie)
After graduating with high honors from medical school, Montessori -- a pediatrician and psychiatrist -- was the first woman to become a physician in Italy. Through her work with young children with disabilities and those from working class or low-income backgrounds, Montessori observed that many of these children were more capable and talented than adults in their lives realized. She developed a revolutionary educational method known as the "Montessori Program," which is designed to ensure that all children in a classroom are able to rise to their full potential regardless of their special needs or socioeconomic status. That teaching system is now used by educators all over the world.
Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez
School where he earned his medical degree: Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
U.S. News research rank: 61 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 51 (tie)
Rodriguez, a plastic surgeon and professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, led a surgery team that successfully performed a full face transplant for an injured fireman. The Miami native is the chair of the Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery at NYU Langone Health. Rodriguez, the son of Cuban immigrants, has a dental degree and a medical degree. He specializes in treating trauma victims and people with serious disfigurements, and he also performs microsurgeries, which involve transferring muscle from one section of the body to another.
Dr. Jonas Salk
School where he earned his medical degree:NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City
U.S. News research rank: 2
U.S. News primary care rank: 41 (tie)
Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, never patented his vaccine or profited from its creation because he wanted the vaccine to save as many lives as possible. The New York-born virologist and medical researcher famously risked his own life and the lives of his family members by testing the polio vaccine on himself and his loved ones before testing it on others. He subsequently founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a nonprofit research center that still operates today, and was searching for a vaccine against AIDS when he died at age 80 in 1995.
Dr. Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr.
School where he earned his medical degree:Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
U.S. News research rank: 11 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 59 (tie)
Sutherland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1971 in recognition of his scientific discoveries relating to how hormones function and how signals are sent between body cells. He demonstrated how adrenaline regulates the breakdown of sugar in the body and how it provides a burst of energy in response to stress. Sutherland also revealed the existence of cyclic adenosine monophosphate, a molecule that is essential for biological processes in cells. During his lifetime, Sutherland was awarded a variety of prizes for groundbreaking research, including the National Medal of Science.
Dr. Jane C. Wright
School where she earned her medical degree:New York Medical College
U.S. News research rank: 90 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 93-123
Wright, a cancer researcher, studied the effectiveness of various chemotherapy drugs, and she and her father, Louis Wright, introduced new chemotherapy chemicals and techniques. As an African American female doctor who began her medical career before the passage of federal civil rights legislation, Wright defied negative racial and gender stereotypes. During an era when there were only a few hundred African American female doctors in the U.S., Wright was a medical school professor at New York University and the first woman elected president of the New York Cancer Society.
Decide which medical school is right for you.
Medical school is costly both in terms of time and money, so it's important to attend a school that will help you match with a medical residency program, which is often required to obtain a U.S. state license to practice medicine without supervision. It's also important to consider a school's curriculum and to speak with current students about their experiences to gauge whether the school is a good fit. Access the U.S. News medical school rankings to identify institutions that specialize in research or primary care. For guidance on finding a school, follow U.S. News Education on Twitter and Facebook.
Med schools where legendary physicians earned their medical degrees
-- Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons: Dr. Virginia Apgar
-- Cornell University's Weill Cornell Medical College: Dr. Anthony S. Fauci
-- Harvard Medical School: Dr. Harvey Cushing
-- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Dr. Victor McKusick
-- New York Medical College: Dr. Jane C. Wright
-- NYU School of Medicine: Dr. Jonas Salk
-- Sapienza University of Rome: Dr. Maria Montessori
-- Technion Israel Institute of Technology: Dr. Nir Barzilai
-- University of Louisville School of Medicine: Dr. Anthony Atala
-- University of Michigan Medical School: Dr. Alice Hamilton
-- University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry: Dr. Michael Gottlieb
-- University of Vienna: Dr. Sigmund Freud
-- University of Zurich: Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
-- Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine: Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez
-- Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine: Dr. Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr.
-- Yale School of Medicine: Dr. Aaron T. Beck
