Stats - number of med school admissions from a university

Pre-Med & Medical School
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The are several ways a undergrad can manipulate their med school acceptance rate. These are the most common:

  1. Gatekeeping by the health profession committee which only offer letters of recommendation to those students who the committee believes have an excellent chance of being accepted.

  2. Not defining their “success” population. Are accepted students current seniors matriculating directly into med school from undergrad? Or are they graduates who have done post-bacc work (to change career paths and do their med school pre-reqs elsewhere), completed an SMP (Special Master’s Programs which improve one’s GPA), or have completed several years of medicine-related work experience? I’ve seen some undergrads include graduates who have been out of college for as long as 10 years in their accepted med student numbers.

  3. Not defining what a “medical school” is. While this sounds like no-brainer, undergrads vary remarkably in how they define a “medical school acceptance”. It could just for MD programs. Or just MD and DO programs. It could include students who attend med schools both inside and outside of the US. (There are offshore med schools that will accept literally anyone who can pay their tuition.) It could include any student who enrolls in a health profession training program post graduation-- including MD, DO, dentistry, clinical psychology, physical therapy, occupation therapy, speech pathology, radiation therapy, respiratory therapy, podiatry, optometry, nursing, etc. I’ve even seen DVMs (veterinarians) and clinical/medical social workers included as “medical school acceptances”

You also need to realize that any published med school success rate ONLY includes those students who persist as pre-meds all the way through college and actually apply to med school.

It’s estimated that between 60 - 75% of freshmen who identify themselves as pre-meds never actually apply to med school. Most drop off the pre-med path not because they can’t earn the high GPA needed for med school, but because they find different interests and passions along the way or because they decide they don’t want to postpone their lives for 8 to 15 years while they complete their medical training. (Medical training last longer than just the 4 years of medical school. There’s residency - 3-7 years–and fellowship–another 1-4 years after residency. One cannot get a medical license without completing a residency at the very minimum.)

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