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US Medical School Rankings & Comparison

Which is the best medical school in the US?

No official ranking names a single best US medical school: U.S. News has moved from a single No. 1 to broad tier bands. On NextGen MedPrep's 0–100 selectivity score, which measures how competitive admission is rather than the quality of education, the most selective MD schools are NYU Grossman School of Medicine (94.6), Perelman School of Medicine, UPenn (94.5) and Harvard Medical School (87.9). All 163 US MD schools in the NextGen MedPrep catalog are listed below: 162 carry a score and 1 is shown inline as not yet ranked (no published MCAT, GPA or acceptance-rate figures).

A transparent, metric-based comparison of US MD (allopathic) medical schools — ranked on each school’s own published MCAT median, GPA, acceptance rate and in-state preference. No reprinted U.S. News ranks, no proprietary funding tallies, no black-box scores: just the figures you can actually verify.

A higher score means a more competitive admissions bar — not a better education or a better fit for you. For the full school profiles see /us/md-schools.

How we rank — and what the score is not
163
MD schools listed
162
With a selectivity score
94.6
Top selectivity score
116
With in-state share

Why no single rank captures fit

For decades US medical schools have been judged by a single number from U.S. News & World Report — but U.S. News actually publishes two very different lists. The research ranking is dominated by federal and NIH funding; the primary-care ranking is driven by how many graduates enter primary-care fields. A school can sit near the top of one and in the middle of the other, which is the first clue that no single “rank” captures fit.

Since early 2023, a long line of leading schools — Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Penn, Mount Sinai, Cornell, Duke, Chicago and Washington among them — have stopped voluntarily submitting data, arguing the formula rewards wealth and reputation over educational quality and pushes schools to game their numbers. U.S. News now builds those rankings from publicly available data instead, and has shifted from a single No. 1 to broad tier bands.

Selectivity is not the same as quality of education, and it is certainly not the same as fit. Two schools with identical MCAT medians can have completely different missions — one research-intensive and nationally recruiting, the other state-funded and built to train physicians for its own communities. For an out-of-state applicant, the in-state preference signal often says more about your real chances than any overall rank.

The evidence that “prestige” predicts your outcomes is weak. Peer-reviewed analyses have found that graduating from a top-40 NIH-funded school has become less predictive of matching into competitive residencies over time, and with USMLE Step 1 now pass/fail, program directors lean heavily on Step 2 CK scores, clinical performance and letters — things a motivated student can earn at a wide range of accredited schools. Use this comparison to build a balanced list, not to chase a number.

How we rank — and what the score is not

We do not reprint U.S. News ranks or invent scores. We rank US MD (allopathic) schools transparently, using only the per-school figures in our dataset: the median MCAT, cumulative undergraduate GPA, science (BCPM) GPA and overall acceptance rate, alongside class size and in-state matriculation share. Where a figure has been checked against the school’s own published class profile, the school’s page names the entering class it describes; where it has not, the page labels it as unconfirmed. Where we hold no figure we show a blank rather than filling the gap.

Why selectivity as the spine of the ranking? Acceptance rate, MCAT median and GPA median are the three inputs U.S. News itself uses for the student-selectivity component of its primary-care formula, and they are the figures the AAMC reports nationally. We build a composite by normalising each school to a 0–100 scale on the metrics it publishes (higher MCAT, higher GPA and a lower acceptance rate all push the score up), then averaging the available signals so a school is never penalised for a field it has not published — a missing metric simply does not count against it, exactly as the shared UK ranking engine handles absent sources.

What the score is not: a higher selectivity score means a more competitive admissions bar, not a better education or a better fit for you. It says nothing about residency match, teaching style, location or mission. That is why we show the underlying columns rather than collapsing everything into one opaque rank, and why we surface in-state preference prominently — for state-funded schools, your residency status can matter more to your odds than any headline number.

US MD medical schools, compared by selectivity

163 US MD (allopathic) medical schools (162 scored; 1 shown inline as “Not yet ranked” with no published MCAT, GPA or acceptance-rate figures), ranked by a 0–100 selectivity score built from published MCAT, GPA and acceptance-rate figures. Find where your own MCAT and GPA sit against each school’s medians, then read in-state preference for your true odds. Click any school for the full MCAT/GPA profile and AMCAS guide.

Selectivity score (0–100) averages the normalised MCAT median, cumulative GPA, science (BCPM) GPA and acceptance rate each school publishes; a lower acceptance rate raises the score. Higher = a more competitive admissions bar, not a better school. GPA cell shows cumulative then science median. In-state preference shows the matriculation share where a school publishes it.

Selectivity tiers explained

Most selective

Score 80+

The highest published admissions bars in the country — MCAT medians around 520+, cumulative GPAs near 3.9, and acceptance rates often below 3%. Overwhelmingly private, research-intensive schools that recruit nationally. A high bar to clear, not a verdict on the quality of education.

Highly selective

60–79.9

Very competitive entry standards — strong MCAT and GPA medians and low acceptance rates. Includes leading private schools and the most competitive state flagships. Aim at or above the median if these are on your list.

Selective

45–59.9

Solid, well-established MD programmes with competitive but more attainable medians. Many are state-funded schools where your in-state status can matter as much as the headline numbers — realistic targets for a wide range of applicants.

Accessible bar

Below 45

A lower published admissions bar relative to the cohort — often newer schools or those with a strong community or in-state mission. A lower score reflects entry statistics, not training quality: every school here is LCME-accredited to the same standard.

Frequently asked questions

No — we do not reprint U.S. News ranks or scores. We build a transparent, metric-based comparison from the per-school figures in our US admissions dataset: median MCAT, cumulative and science (BCPM) GPA, acceptance rate, class size and in-state matriculation share. Where a figure has been checked against the school’s own published class profile, that school’s page says so and names the entering class it describes; figures we have not yet been able to confirm are labelled as unconfirmed there. Every school is normalised to a 0–100 selectivity view on the metrics we hold, so it is never penalised for a missing field. You can see every input — nothing is a black box.

Build a balanced US school list

Anchor your reaches, targets and likelies around how your MCAT and GPA sit against each school’s medians — then layer in mission, geography and in-state odds.

Where to apply: build your school list Browse US MD schools Compare DO schools
Reviewed by the NextGenMedPrep Admissions Team, admissions editorial team at NextGenMedPrep. Last reviewed: September 13, 2026 · Editorial policy