Table of Contents
The Importance of Location When Making Your School List
Many students prefer to attend medical school in a particular area of the country. Here are some questions to answer:
- Do you want to live in an urban or suburban environment?
- What climate to you prefer?
- Do you prefer a large city or smaller city?
- Are you single or do you have a family?
- Where is your support system and do you want to be close to existing friends or family?
There are many personal factors that will impact your decision about where you would like to attend medical school. Also keep in mind that many students end up doing their residency training where they attended medical school or at their medical school’s affiliated hospitals. Applicants who are very competitive can sometimes have the luxury of choosing where they would like to attend school; however, those who are less competitive often cannot be this choosy.
However, one of the biggest reasons that geography is so important is because your state residency will often determine what medical schools you are most likely to get accepted to. Why? Public or state schools offer preference to in state residents. By the same token, as an out of state resident you will have a very difficult time getting accepted to some public medical schools.
For example, let’s say you are a Connecticut resident and you have a 505 on the MCAT. You see that The University of Mississippi has an average MCAT of 504 and decide to apply. This is not a great idea because Mississippi accepts no out of state residents. Therefore, you have zero shot of getting in there.
Many medical schools that have the lowest medianGPA and MCAT scoresfor accepted students are state schools that either accept very few, or no, out of state applicants. Therefore, these state medical schools might be “easiest” to gain acceptance to as an in state applicant but extremely difficult, or impossible, to gain admission to as an out of state applicant.
Admissions Statistics (Likelihood of Getting In)
When trying to determine how competitive you are for any medical school, the first thing to consider is your MCAT and GPA. Most medical schools will not publish the minimum GPA and MCAT required for consideration. You should review the admissions statistics for matriculated and accepted applicants at all medical schools to determine where to apply. This information can be found in the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR®) book published and available in an online version from the AAMC® and the online version of US News and World Report. Next consider a medical program’s acceptance rate, if the medical school is a public (state) or private school, and the number of applications received and percentage of applicants interviewed. You can view that data on our website.
Easiest Public and State Medical Schools to get Into 2024
Let’s review the allopathic public American medical colleges that are the easiest to get in to. With this data, we will include the percentage of out of state matriculants to offer an idea of how competitive that medical school is for out of state applicants. For medical schools with very low out of state matriculation rates (less than 15%) the medical school usually only accept out of state students that have an association with the state in some capacity such as having lived there previously or if the applicant attended undergraduate college in the state. All of the schools on this are public except for Mercer University School of Medicine in Georgia which is private, but, only accepts Georgia residents. You will also see that these schools accept mostly state residents.
| School Name | Type | MCAT | GPA | Percent of Out of State Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University | Public | 508 | 3.66 | 0 |
| East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine | Public | 509 | 3.8 | 12.5% |
| Florida State University College of Medicine | Public | 507 | 3.77 | 1% |
| Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport | NA | 505 | 3.76 | 3% |
| Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine | Public | 503 | 3.74 | 22% |
| Michigan State University College of Human Medicine | Public | 508 | 3.71 | 28% |
| Mercer University School of Medicine | Private | 506 | 3.68 | 0 |
| Northeast Ohio Medical University | Public | 505 | 3.82 | 6% |
| Southern Illinois University School of Medicine | Public | 508 | 3.77 | 0 |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine | Public | 508 | 3.83 | 7.5% |
| University of Arizona College of Medicine | NA | 508 | 3.72 | 26% |
| University of Kansas School of Medicine | NA | 509 | 3.82 | 11% |
| University of Kentucky College of Medicine | NA | 508 | 3.79 | 10% |
| University of Mississippi School of Medicine | Public | 505 | 3.77 | 0 |
| University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine | Public | 507 | 3.82 | 5% (Does not include BS/MD matriculants) |
| University of New Mexico School of Medicine | Public | 507 | 3.8 | 10% |
| University of South Alabama | Public | 508 | 3.85 | 6.7% |
| University of Texas Rio Grande | Public | 508 | 3.58 | 7.4% |
| University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences | Public | 507 | 3.82 | 38% |
| University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine | Public | 504 | 3.8 | 2% |
Top 10 Easiest Private Medical Schools to Get Into 2024
