10 Medical Schools With the Most Applicants – WTOP

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in

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 matters to you in your college or grad school search.

Getting into medical school can be a long shot, considering there are typically more applicants than seats. But applicant pools at some medical schools run deep with more than 10,000 students vying for a coveted slot to earn a degree at a quality institution.

Just how hard is it to get into medical school, considering the high academic standards and scarcity of seats? Nearly 900,000 applications were submitted to medical schools in 2019-2020, but just under 22,000 applicants matriculated, per data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The 896,819 applications were filed by 53,371 prospective students, each applying to an average of 17 medical schools.

[Read: How Many Medical Schools Should You Apply To?]

Despite the staggering number of applications in the 2019-2020 school year, only 41% of applicants matriculated into medical school.

Of the 122 ranked medical schools that reported the number of applications in fall 2019 to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average number received was 5,947. Of the 10 schools with the most applications, the average number received was significantly higher, at 12,496. In contrast, the 10 medical schools with the lowest number of applications received an average of 1,448, which translates to an average of 11,048 fewer than the schools at the top of this list.

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine received the most applications in fall 2019, per U.S. News data. Located in Pennsylvania, Lake Erie College received 17,133 applicants; it is one of only two osteopathic medical schools on this list, the other being Western University of Health Sciences in California.

[Read: What to Consider Before Applying to Medical School.]

The schools rounding out this list tend to be on the East Coast, but no one state can claim a significant share of these institutions. California, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., each claim two schools, with the rest scattered around the country.

Despite the high volume of applications, most of the schools on this list dont occupy top spots in the U.S. News medical school rankings for research or primary care. The Geffen School of Medicine at the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles is the highest ranked school on this list in both categories.

Below is a list of the 10 medical schools with the most applicants who competed for spots in the fall 2019 incoming class. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

Dont see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Medical School Compass to find the number of applicants, 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 applicant data above is correct as of June 16, 2020.