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US universities hub

Explore every US medical & dentalschool

Three independently accredited systems — MD, DO and dental. This hub is where you move from “where could I apply?” to a defensible shortlist of schools you would genuinely attend.

Choose your pathwayCompare by the numbers

163

MD schools

69

DO schools

78

Dental schools

49

States & territories

Pick your system

Three pathways, three directories

The US trains dentists and two interchangeable kinds of physician. Each system has its own accreditor, application service and admissions test — so the first decision you make is which directory to open.

MD — allopathic medicine

MCAT · AMCAS

LCME-accredited medical schools applying through AMCAS. The largest system, spanning private research powerhouses and state flagships with strong in-state preference.

Browse MD schools

DO — osteopathic medicine

MCAT · AACOMAS

COCA-accredited colleges applying through AACOMAS. Same unrestricted licence and unified Match as MD, plus osteopathic manipulative medicine and a primary-care mission.

Browse DO schools

Dental — DDS / DMD

DAT · ADEA AADSAS

CODA-accredited predoctoral schools applying through ADEA AADSAS. The DDS and DMD letters differ but the curriculum and licence do not — look for manual dexterity and shadowing alongside the DAT.

Browse dental schools

The decision that drives admissions

Public, private and the in-state question

The single biggest structural factor in US admissions is the public-versus-private split and the residency preference that comes with it. It often matters more to your real odds than a few points of MCAT or GPA.

Public (state-funded) schools

Funded by taxpayers to educate their state’s future workforce, many give heavy — sometimes near-exclusive — preference to in-state residents, filling 75–90% of a class from in-state applicants and reviewing out-of-state files only when exceptional or tied to the state. Lean on the publics in your own state of residence as higher-probability targets.

Private schools

With no residency mandate, private schools build national — and international — classes purely on the strength of the application. For an out-of-state applicant they are the genuinely national options, while strongly in-state-preference publics in other states behave like long reaches.

The MSAR and the parallel dental data publish in-state versus out-of-state acceptee numbers school by school, precisely so you can make this call with evidence rather than guesswork. Our rankings & comparison surfaces each school’s in-state matriculation share where it is published.

How to research & shortlist

From browsing to a balanced list

There is no nationally fixed number of applications, but applicants commonly apply broadly because individual acceptance rates are low and holistic review makes outcomes hard to predict. Build the list in four moves.

Pick your system

Decide whether you are pursuing MD, DO or dental — that fixes your test (MCAT or DAT), your application portal and which directory to open.

Read the in-state map

Separate the private (no-preference) schools nationwide from the public schools in your own state — your residency status reshapes the odds.

Find your numbers

Place your MCAT/GPA (or DAT/GPA) against each school’s published medians to sort them into reach, target and likely tiers.

Pressure-test the list

Layer in mission fit, holistic-review evidence, Casper/PREview policy and the cost of each secondary — then keep only schools you would attend.

A guiding rule from the AAMC: ignore national rankings, build your own list against the data, and only apply to schools you would actually attend if accepted.

Read the application strategy

Everything in one place

The research toolkit

Six free surfaces that take you from a blank page to a defensible shortlist. Here’s what each one does — and when to reach for it.

School directories

Full profiles for MD, DO and dental schools — MCAT/GPA medians, acceptance rates, in-state preference and interview formats.

When to use it: Start here to research a school from scratch or check a single requirement.

Browse all schools

Rankings & comparison

A transparent, metric-based comparison built only from each school’s own published MCAT, GPA and acceptance figures — no reprinted U.S. News ranks.

When to use it: Use it to turn raw selectivity into a balanced reach / target / likely shortlist.

See the comparison

MD vs DO explained

How the two physician pathways differ — accreditation, application service, OMM, the unified Match and the statistical profile of matriculants.

When to use it: Read it when you are deciding whether to apply to one system or both.

Compare the pathways

MCAT guide

Section breakdown, scoring and the target scores your school list actually demands — so your prep tracks the schools you want.

When to use it: Open it once you know which schools are on your draft list.

Open the MCAT guide

Application strategy

AMCAS / AACOMAS timing, secondaries, the rolling cycle and the AAMC traffic rules that quietly shape every applicant’s odds.

When to use it: Read it before you submit to make early, rolling review work for you.

Plan your application

Holistic review

How the experiences–attributes–metrics framework and the AAMC Core Competencies are weighed alongside your numbers.

When to use it: Use it to build experiences that survive screening, not just a high MCAT.

Understand holistic review
Featured · Compare by the numbers

See where each school really sits

Because no single ranking captures fit, we don’t reprint U.S. News ranks. We build a transparent comparison from each school’s own published figures — MCAT and GPA medians and acceptance rate — so you can sort schools into reaches, targets and likelies against your own numbers.

  • Every input is a school’s own published figure — nothing is a black box
  • In-state matriculation share surfaced where a school publishes it
  • A missing metric never counts against a school
Medical school comparisonDental school comparison
Top 5 by admissions bar
See the full comparison — all 163 MD schools

The national picture

US medical & dental admissions by the numbers

National benchmarks from the AAMC, AACOM and ADA/ADEA — context for where your own numbers sit. These are sector-wide figures; per-school medians live on each directory profile.

~155–158

LCME-accredited MD schools

47

COCA-accredited DO colleges

70+

CODA-accredited dental schools

~512

Mean MCAT, MD matriculants

~503

Mean MCAT, DO matriculants

~3.8

Mean GPA, MD matriculants

2020

MD + DO unified Match since

~May / Jun

Primary opens / first submission

Figures are recent-cycle benchmarks rounded for orientation (AAMC FACTS; AACOM applicant & matriculant reports; ADA Health Policy Institute / ADEA). Counts shift year to year as programs gain accreditation.

The landscape

US schools by region

Schools sit in every region but cluster unevenly. For an out-of-state applicant, the regional lesson is simple: identify the private (no-preference) schools nationwide and the public schools in your own state, then treat out-of-state publics elsewhere as reaches.

Northeast & Mid-Atlantic

A dense cluster of long-established private medical and dental schools that recruit nationally — among the most oversubscribed in the country.

South & Texas

A large, growing block of public schools with strong in-state preference. Texas runs much of its medical admissions through its own service (TMDSAS) rather than AMCAS.

Midwest

Big public flagships sit alongside private institutions — a mix of strong in-state-preference publics and nationally recruiting private schools.

Mountain West & Appalachia

The fastest growth in new DO colleges and branch campuses, expanding osteopathic training and access in previously underserved areas.

West Coast

Highly competitive and heavily oversubscribed — a small number of very selective public and private schools serving very large applicant pools.

Across all regions, our catalogue covers schools in 49 states & territories.

Browse the directories
Featured · Compare tool

Put your shortlist side by side

Once you have a handful of contenders, stop flicking between tabs. Line up MCAT/GPA medians, acceptance rates and in-state preference so the differences — and the misclassified “targets” that are really reaches — jump out.

Open the comparison tool

Self-assessment prompt

“Pull up three schools from different tiers of your draft list. For each, write down its median MCAT/GPA (or DAT/GPA), whether it is public or private, and its in-state versus out-of-state acceptee split. Which of the three is misclassified as a target when the data says reach?”

An exercise to pressure-test your own list — original to NextGen MedPrep.

Frequently asked questions

The questions applicants ask first when they start researching US schools.

There are roughly 155–158 LCME-accredited MD (allopathic) medical schools, about 47 COCA-accredited DO (osteopathic) colleges that now teach across more than 70 locations in over 30 states, and 70-plus CODA-accredited predoctoral dental schools awarding the DDS or DMD degree. The AAMC, AACOM and ADA/CODA accredit and report on each system, and the counts shift slightly year to year as new programs gain provisional or full accreditation.

Both MD and DO graduates are fully licensed physicians who can enter any specialty and who now compete in a single, unified residency match. MD programs are LCME-accredited and apply through AMCAS; DO programs are COCA-accredited, apply through AACOMAS, add training in osteopathic manipulative medicine, and lean toward a primary-care and underserved-community mission. On average DO matriculants present somewhat lower MCAT and GPA numbers than MD matriculants, which makes the DO route an important parallel pathway rather than a lesser one. Both sit the MCAT.

Many public (state-funded) medical and dental schools are mandated to educate residents of their home state and so fill a large majority of each class — often 75–90% — with in-state applicants, reviewing out-of-state files only when they are exceptional or show genuine ties to the state. Private schools have no such mandate and recruit nationally. Because of this, your state of legal residence can change your realistic odds at a given school more than a few points of MCAT or GPA. The MSAR publishes in-state versus out-of-state acceptee data school by school so you can judge each program honestly.

Sort prospective schools into three tiers using each program’s published applicant data: reach schools where the median MCAT/GPA (or DAT/GPA) sits above your numbers, or where you are out of state at a strong in-state-preference public; target schools where your stats land near the median and you fit the mission; and likely schools where your numbers are comfortably above the median with no residency barrier. The AAMC’s own advice is to ignore national rankings, build your list against the data, and only apply to schools you would actually attend if accepted.

The Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) is the AAMC’s official online database of US and Canadian MD schools, with parallel data products covering DO and dental programs. A subscription lets you browse, filter and compare schools by location, public or private status, class size, degree program, median MCAT and GPA ranges, and — importantly — separate metrics for in-state versus out-of-state accepted applicants. Use it to see where your numbers fall relative to each school nationally and program by program, then convert that into a realistic reach / target / likely list.

Yes. Most US medical schools use holistic review, evaluating applicants across experiences, attributes and academic metrics rather than scores alone — clinical and patient-care exposure, research, community service, leadership and a coherent personal narrative all carry weight. This means a slightly below-median applicant with strong experiences can still earn interviews, while high-stat applicants with thin clinical or service records are regularly screened out. Dental admissions similarly look for manual dexterity, shadowing and motivation alongside the DAT and GPA.

Beyond the MCAT (MD and DO) or DAT (dental), a growing number of medical schools require or recommend a situational-judgement or professional-readiness assessment. The two most common are Casper, an open-response situational-judgement test from Acuity Insights/Altus, and the AAMC PREview professional readiness exam; dozens of MD and DO programs use one or the other, and policies differ by school. Always confirm each school’s exact requirement — and its deadline — in the MSAR or the school’s own admissions pages before submitting.

The primary application services — AMCAS for MD, AACOMAS for DO, and ADEA AADSAS for dental — typically open in early-to-mid May, with the first submissions accepted in early June for the following year’s entry. Because schools review applications and issue interview invitations on a rolling basis, submitting a complete, verified primary early in the window is strongly associated with better outcomes. After the primary, schools send secondary (supplemental) essays, often within weeks, so a prompt, well-prepared turnaround matters too.

Ready to build your shortlist?

Start with a pathway, open the matching directory, then let the comparison narrow it down to a balanced set of reaches, targets and likelies you would genuinely attend.

Browse all schoolsCompare by the numbers