Explore every
US medical & dental
school
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.
163
MD schools
64
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 schoolsDO — 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 schoolsDental — 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 schoolsThe 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 strategyEverything 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 schoolsRankings & 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 comparisonMD 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 pathwaysMCAT 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 guideApplication 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 applicationHolistic 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 reviewSee 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
| # | School | MCATmedian | Accept.rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NYU Grossman School of Medicine (MD — tuition-free)NY | 523 | 1.8% |
| 2 | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (MD)MD | 522 | 1.8% |
| 3 | Perelman School of Medicine, UPenn (MD)PA | 522 | 3.0% |
| 4 | Columbia University VP&S (MD)NY | 521 | 3.3% |
| 5 | Yale School of Medicine (MD)CT | 521 | 3.5% |
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.
A dense cluster of long-established private medical and dental schools that recruit nationally — among the most oversubscribed in the country.
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.
Big public flagships sit alongside private institutions — a mix of strong in-state-preference publics and nationally recruiting private schools.
The fastest growth in new DO colleges and branch campuses, expanding osteopathic training and access in previously underserved areas.
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 directoriesPut 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 toolSelf-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.
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.