This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Michael Keyes, former Assistant Clinical Professor Med School Virtually every medical school in the US has single digit acceptance rates. There were 800+K applications last year and 21K students who were accepted. https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/factstablea1.pdf There were a total of 51K people applying to medical schools which makes the apparent acceptance rate to some medical school about 40%. https://www.aamc.org/download/32... But this doesn’t mean that all you have to do is apply and you have a 4 in 10 chance of getting in, the matriculants were all universally bright successful students. https://www.aamc.org/download/32... GPA averages were 3.7, MCAT averages were 510 which places them in the 80th percentile (in other words of all the people who took the MCAT, 80% of them did worse which means that many took the test and did not apply.) According to many studies, at least two-thirds of students who start out pre-medical drop out at some time and less than half of those who finish (usually by satisfying a pre-professional board at the school) are accepted to medical school. That’s success rate of around 15% for those who start as pre-meds and that varies considerably with the schools. Some schools never get a student into medical school. So, to be considered you have to have a GPA of 3.7, you have to have an MCAT in the 510 range (and these numbers go up each year) plus you have to have great recommendations and extra-curriculars. There is a reason why Harvard has such a great acceptance rate and it involves the quality of the students and their preparation. Six year programs and guaranteed acceptance programs all have small print. You have to continue to fulfill their requirements and work very hard but they often have the bonus of your not having to take the MCAT as part of the deal. Most of these programs are hard to get into and only work with one school. They have very small numbers too. It’s just plain hard to get into medical school. You have to be dedicated, you have to work hard, you have to be competitive in many colleges and you have to be very sure that’s what you want to do. Good luck in your endeavors. Source
