Top 10 Best Medical Schools in the US: How to Get In (2024)
/A list of the top medical schools in the US, in addition to med school rankings and strategies to help you get admitted
What are the best medical schools in the us?
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Introduction
Getting into any medical school is a notable achievement, especially since the majority of applicants do not get in anywhere. However, if you’re a high-achieving premed who has dedicated a great deal of time and effort to obtaining great grades, studying for the MCAT, and participating in extracurriculars, it makes sense that you’d want to attend the best medical school you can. For many, an acceptance from a top medical school is the ultimate validation of your sacrifices and hard work.
Getting into the best medical schools is hard, and it’s easy to understand why the competition for the limited number of seats is so fierce. Career opportunities for graduates of prestigious medical schools are limitless, as many go on to become Nobel Laureates, CEOs, or pioneers in medical research.
We’ve all heard of superstar premeds getting rejected from top med schools. So what does it really take, beyond great grades and test scores, to get in?
We’ve compiled a list below of the top 10 best medical schools, according to the 2023 and 2024 U.S. News & World Report research rankings, along with admission statistics so you can better understand the admissions landscape. We’ll also share some high-yield strategies to help you stand out when applying so you can maximize your chances of getting accepted.
Suggested reading (Medical School Requirements in 2024: The Definitive Guide)
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List of the top 10 best medical schools: 2024 rankings & admissions statistics
Note: U.S. News and World Report moved to a tier-based ranking system in fall 2024, in part due to a number of schools declining to participate. Schools who declined to share sufficient data with US News are now unranked, which is reflected in the table below with ‘UR.' Schools that did participate are given ‘tier’ rankings by U.S. News. We’ve reported rankings from both the prior and current cycles to more accurately reflect where the top medical schools stand.
| Top 10 Best Medical Schools | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard Medical School | $77,691 (HST) |
9.1% OOS |
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| Johns Hopkins School of Medicine | $70,380 OOS |
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| University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine | $74,687 OOS |
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| Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons | $80,644 OOS |
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| Duke University School of Medicine | $74,849 OOS |
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| Stanford University School of Medicine | $73,628 OOS |
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| UCSF School of Medicine* | $62,782 OOS |
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| Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | $70,660 OOS |
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| Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis | $72,975 OOS |
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| Weill Cornell Medical College | |||||||||
| NYU Grossman School of Medicine | $4,350 OOS |
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| Yale University School of Medicine | $73,495 OOS |
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How to get into top-10 medical schools
Strategy 1: Obtain high stats and develop a unique extracurricular profile.
To make it past the first hurdle when admissions committees review your application, you’ll want to ensure your stats are close to the average GPA and MCAT scores of the schools you’re interested in applying to. To be on the safe side, a 3.9+ GPA and 520+ MCAT score will make you a competitive applicant at all of the top 10 medical schools.
(Suggested reading: How to Get a Perfect MCAT Score: Strategies from a 528 Scorer)
In addition to achieving academically, top medical schools want to see that you’ve completed all of the extracurricular activities required by most programs. However, to be a standout candidate, you should select one or two extracurricular activities that you genuinely enjoy and achieve at the highest levels in them. You’ll want your application to have a clear theme to be memorable—aim to be known as “that guy who spearheaded multiple impactful projects aimed at helping Latino youth” or “that gal who volunteers at the nursing home and conducts Alzheimer’s research.”
(Suggested reading: How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School)
Strategy 2: Organize your time around secondary essays
After working your way through your AMCAS application and crafting a personal statement that captures your essence, you’ll be invited to complete secondary applications for some (if not all) of the schools you’ve applied to. Each of these applications will require you to write even more essays specific to the school’s program. You may encounter prompts asking about diversity or adversity, or you could find yourself responding to the all-encompassing “Why us?” essay. Still other prompts may require a more creative response.
For the best chances of success on your applications, you should be applying to at least 15 to 25 medical schools–even adding 5 to 10 more if you have the resources. Should you receive a secondary application from each of those schools (or even most!), that translates into a lot of time and effort spent writing and revising.
As each school will have its own number of secondary essay prompts, it’s beneficial to think ahead and plan your time around the number of secondary essays you’ll need to complete. This can help you stay on track and construct the picture of yourself in your writing that you want adcoms to see.
How you plan to approach this task is up to you. Do you want to first tackle the prompts for the schools with more or fewer essays? Perhaps starting with essays by word count is better for you. Regardless of how you decide to plug away at the stack of essays, it’s important to have a plan. With this in mind, we’ve created a table listing the number of secondary essays required for each of the top 10 medical schools in the USA below.
Suggested reading: (Medical School Secondary Essays: The Complete Guide)
| Top 10 Medical Schools | |
|---|---|
| Harvard Medical School | |
| Johns Hopkins School of Medicine | |
| University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine | |
| Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons | |
| Duke University School of Medicine | |
| Stanford University School of Medicine | |
| UCSF School of Medicine | |
| Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | |
| Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis | |
| Weill Cornell Medical College | |
| NYU Grossman School of Medicine | |
| Yale University School of Medicine |
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Strategy 3: Carefully review each medical school’s mission statement and communicate fit in your application.
Although most top medical schools are seen as “one and the same”, you’ll still need to communicate how your experiences and interests make you a great fit for that program. To learn what each program cares about specifically, read each school’s website and get in touch with current students.
Many students mistakenly believe that by being overly complimentary of a school’s offerings, location, or reputation for excellence, they can win over admissions committees. However, schools already know what they have to offer! Instead, you should aim to discuss your background and why you would be a good fit for the school.
The good news is: there will be many opportunities to do this through your secondary essays and responses to interview questions.
Strategy 4: Don’t forget to prepare for interviews
Once you’ve sent off your secondary applications, you may be tempted to just sit back and anxiously await a response. However, this is a losing strategy as it wastes critical time you have to prepare for interviews.
Performing well in medical school interviews is a skill that requires a different kind of effective communication from writing your essays. Your mannerisms, personability, and thoughtfulness are all on display in real time. You’ll want to practice your answers to common questions so that you’re not caught off guard in the moment.
Additionally, knowing which interview style to prepare for is extremely important. Will you be encountering a traditional interview or the MMI? Ensuring you’re fully prepared for any situation will go a long way to leaving a lasting positive impression with adcoms.
Furthermore, make sure you read up on what interview day entails at the schools you apply to. What does the day’s schedule look like? Will you have a chance to meet with other students and ask questions of your own? Remember, interview day is not just a question and answer session with faculty, you’ll be on display throughout the day.
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Strategy 5: Highlight experiences with underrepresented groups
While recent Supreme Court decisions have ended the practice of actively screening candidates based on their race, this has not diminished the fact that medical schools across the country continue to value a diverse student body.
Delivering adequate care to underrepresented groups has long been an issue in the field of medicine and one way to address this is by graduating more doctors from those groups.
Many of the best colleges for medicine in this list have diversity and inclusion programs with the stated aim of fostering a more equitable healthcare system. It’s possible that your background may come into consideration here, but more importantly, it will be your engagement with underserved or underrepresented populations that can be a boon to your application.
Engagement is key
One way to highlight your commitment to serving underrepresented groups on your application is to ensure you engage with them before you apply. This can be done through your extracurricular activities or through diversity-related initiatives at top-10 schools.
The majority of schools listed in this guide have offices of diversity and inclusion, such as Harvard’s Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs and Cornell’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. These are great places to start when looking for ways to get involved.
The offices may also be able to connect you to mentors who are involved in diversity efforts within medical schools. Mentors can provide guidance on the application process and help you identify programs that align with your values and goals.
Aside from the offices themselves, unique programs for undergraduates exist at Cornell, like their Pre-Medical Diversity Initiatives, and at Yale which has various programs aimed at assisting students who are underrepresented in medicine. Yale’s programs include the Yale Summer Enrichment Medical Academy (YSEMA) and the Program to Advance Training in Health & Sciences (PATHS).
Communication is vital
Engaging in initiatives, reaching out to mentors and volunteering with underserved groups in your community is fantastic, but doesn’t do much good if you don’t ensure to highlight those experiences in your applications and interviews.
Your unique perspectives and experiences are valuable, but finding a way to effectively communicate them to top-tier medical schools is tricky. If you’re truly interested in serving these groups, your personal statement and secondary essays should discuss how these experiences have shaped your desire to pursue a career in medicine.
Read and digest your dream schools’ diversity and inclusion mission statements and tailor your essays regarding diversity to the qualities they are seeking. If you’re having difficulty striking the right tone in your writing, your college’s pre-health office or writing resource center will likely have resources to assist you in crafting a stellar essay.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the best university to study medicine?
Ambitious students often want to know what is the best university to study medicine and it’s understandable to aim for the stars. While it may seem straightforward to use Harvard Medical School’s number 1 ranking as the answer to this question, in reality, it’s more complex.
The best university to study medicine will depend on your circumstances, goals, interests and even the cost of attendance. For example, perhaps Johns Hopkins or Weill Cornell have a research program that fascinates you or maybe Stanford has a particular facility that none of the other top 10 schools have. Furthermore, if you’re keen to serve a rural or underprivileged community a school with this focus might be the best for you even if it’s not in the top 10.
And let’s not forget cost. Medical school is expensive so you may need to balance what you pay with the quality of education. On the other hand, this may just come down to deciding on studying somewhere within your state rather than out-of-state.
Remember, while you should always strive to be the best you can be, the education you receive will be among the best in the world at any of the medical schools listed here.
Does it matter what med school you go to?
Sometimes we meet students who say they would be happy to get into any med school and even ask if it matters which school they attend. If you have the stats, ambition, and talent to get into a top institution, why would you want to aim lower than what you’re capable of?
That said, getting into any medical school is an impressive feat with only 43% of applicants matriculating in 2023. But it’s possible that just getting accepted may not be the best for your situation. If you dream of becoming a medical scientist, you’ll certainly want to attend a school with an excellent MD-PhD program. If there’s a particular community you envision yourself serving in the future, it would be wise to attend a school that has ties to that community. Likewise, if you desire to practice a certain specialty, a school with high match rates for that specialty would be beneficial for you.
What state has the best med schools?
Considering our list above, New York has the most med schools in the top 10, with California just behind. However, while only Harvard Medical School makes the top 10 from Massachusetts, all of the institutions in that state are highly ranked. The same goes for Maryland’s three medical schools.
Some states may have more highly regarded medical schools than others, but that doesn’t mean a particular state has the best schools. The unique strengths and weaknesses of institutions are spread out across the United States and come down to factors like geographic location, population, historical reputation, and access to funding, not to mention areas of expertise.
Click below to learn more school-specific strategies:
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.