Choosing Your Medical Schools

The Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR) is a tool you can use to choose schools. It contains data on each medical school, including their links. It can be useful to have your own MSAR account as well, though there is a small cost ($27). Check the website of each school in which you are interested in the MSAR or by contacting them.

Begin Choosing Your Schools

Use this Medical School Worksheet to assemble your list.

Work with the HPP Advisors to craft a list that suits your interests.

When Considering Schools

What matters to you?

Preferences include location, size, curriculum type, educational emphasis, school culture, community, and faculty; research or community service access, etc.

Look at GPA and MCAT ranges

While it may appear schools have approximately the same median for accepted applicants, look at the percentile ranges of GPAs/MCAT from which schools have chosen applicants. If a school has chosen candidates a bit lower on the GPA scale, it's not a standard distribution, the median is still higher.

Explore deeply through a school's website

Glean information about curriculum, community, mission, and institutional values. This helps shape your list and will help you explain to them why you are a good match.

State schools

Be aware state schools may not take many applicants from out of state.

International students

If you are an international student, make sure to sort out which US schools accept international students. Only about 55 of them do. More information can be found on the International Students page.