Comparing In-State and Out-of-State Medical School Acceptance Rates
You’re applying to medical school. You know the drill – you have the best chance of getting into your home state med programs AND they’ll be your most affordable option (usually). But what if you apply and don’t get into the in-state schools? Or what if your state doesn’t have the best programs for you? Or what if your in-state schools are all really competitive and out of reach for you? You may need to turn to out-of-state medical schools. How can you figure out which programs are most friendly to out-of-state applicants?
Updated Resource: In-State vs. Out-of-State Acceptance Rate Chart
Using the latest data from U.S. News, we’ve updated our cool resource that helps students identify and compare the acceptance rates of in-state and out-of-state medical school applicants.
Here’s how it works.
- Head over to the chart here.
- Choose how you’d like to sort the data: by state, overall acceptance rate, in-state acceptance rate, out-of-state acceptance rate, ratio of in-state to out-of-state acceptance rate, and in-state advantage.
- Play around with your options to determine the best in-state and out-of-state med schools for you!
Determining where you should apply to med school: in-state or out-of-state?
Let’s say you live in Georgia. You can click on the State column to sort the programs by state. Scroll down to GA to find the two Georgia med schools, Augusta and Emory. Now you can compare their overall acceptance rates (11.1% for Augusta and 4.5% for Emory). If you continue looking at the chart, you’ll discover that the acceptance rate for Augusta jumps up to 25.9% for in-state applicants, while Emory’s in-state acceptance rate only budges slightly higher to 9.4%. Meanwhile, when it comes to the out-of-state acceptance rates, Augusta’s drops all the way to 1.2% and Emory’s only slightly to 4.0%.
What does this mean for you? This means that if you live in Georgia and are competitive in the usual, other ways, you have a pretty good chance of acceptance to Augusta University, but that Emory doesn’t really care all that much where you’re from.
Now if you live in, say, Kentucky, aren’t interested in the med schools there, but have your heart set on heading over to Georgia and are competitive in other ways, you’d have a better chance of gaining admission to Emory as an out-of-stater than you would to Augusta.
Our point is this: each case is different, but where you live can play a rather large part in your admissions chances.
On the other hand, there are plenty of schools that completely don’t care which state is listed on your driver’s license. If you head to the chart and click on the “In-State Advantage” column, you’ll see 11 schools where there is no advantage at all to being an in-state applicant, and then another 5 where that advantage is “negligible.” (Then you’ll hit the “modest,” “material,” and “huge” options further down the list.)
Top 11 friendliest medical schools to out-of-state applicants
You want to head out-of-state. Which schools should you consider? Which med school programs are more likely to welcome you with open arms? (This table is taken from the In-State vs. Out-of-State Acceptance Rate Chart.)
| Medical School | State | Overall Acceptance Rate | In-State Acceptance Rate | Out-of-State Acceptance Rate | In-State Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case Western Reserve University | OH | 8.8% | 8.4% | 8.9% | None |
| Cornell University (Weill) | NY | 5.8% | 5.7% | 5.8% | None |
| Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | NY | 6.9% | 7.9% | 6.6% | None |
| Johns Hopkins University | MD | 6.1% | 3.9% | 6.2% | None |
| New York University (Langone) | NY | 4.9% | 5.0% | 4.9% | None |
| Northwestern University (Feinberg) | IL | 7.5% | 6.9% | 7.5% | None |
| Stanford University | CA | 2.5% | 2.8% | 2.4% | None |
| University of Chicago (Pritzker) | IL | 4.8% | 5.8% | 4.7% | None |
| University of Rochester | NY | 5.1% | 5.9% | 4.9% | None |
| Washington University in St. Louis | MO | 10.2% | 8.6% | 10.3% | None |
| Yale University | CT | 5.4% | 3.3% | 5.5% | None |
Looking for more guidance as you determine the best medical schools for you? Check out Accepted’s Medical School Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you GET ACCEPTED.
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Related Resources:
• Navigate the Med School Maze, a free guide
• In-State vs. Out-of-State Med School Acceptance Rates: Why You Should Care
• Tuition-Free Medical School: Everything You Need to Know in 2020-21
