Last Updated on August 30, 2023
Liberal arts colleges have been a great option for people looking to pursue a less competitive course of studies that still offers a solid education and personalized approach to learning. Many top-ranked colleges have liberal arts programs which allow students to pursue a wider variety of academic interests. Liberal arts colleges also provide the intellectual environment for students to develop a professional mindset through a range of academic disciplines without a prescribed specific course. A liberal arts college gives you the options to choose from a wide variety of different fields, all on one campus. Liberal Arts Colleges’ Medical School Acceptance Rates
If you are wondering if the school you are applying to will accept you, your family’s income level, your expenses and other factors come into play, so it would be wise to check the statistics of the medical school(s) that you are interested in. According to College Prowler , the acceptance rate is the percentage of students who applied to a particular school who were accepted at that medical school. That acceptance rate for Harvard University School of Medicine is only 3%, but if that same student applies to Tufts University School of Medicine, their acceptance rate jumps to just under 32%!
liberal arts colleges
When parents hear the term “liberal arts college,” they often furrow their brows and wonder what sort of education these institutions provide. Liberal arts colleges emphasize undergraduate study in a variety of subjects including the arts, sciences, and humanities. Although this traditional definition does not differentiate it significantly from a university, there are some notable differences between the two.
Not all liberal arts-style educations are equal. Deciding which liberal arts college to attend can radically influence how medical schools interpret your major.
When considering where to pursue a liberal arts education, both Ivy League schools and so-called “Public Ivies” offer phenomenal, rigorous programs that admissions teams will look favorably upon. They wed the benefits of a large research institution to the philosophy of a liberal arts education—or the idea that studying widely, and without a specific pre-professional aim in mind is universally beneficial.
Public Ivies, such as the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, University of Texas-Austin, and more, also offer top liberal arts as well as science degrees, ensuring that both the major you pursue and your additional science coursework will prepare you adequately to do well on the MCAT and get you one of those coveted acceptances.
The UC system in particular is chock full of Public Ivies that offer students both liberal arts curricula and a wealth of research opportunities.
The best liberal arts colleges for medical school
We’ve listed the top ten liberal arts colleges as ranked by U.S. News & World Report and visited each school’s website to provide you with their most recent medical school acceptance rate. It’s worth noting that every school on this list has a medical school acceptance rate that far exceeds the national average.
Williams College
- U.S. News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 1
- Location: Williamstown, MA
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 15%
- According to the website, “Each year, about 50 Williams undergraduate students and alumni apply to medical schools. The three-year acceptance rate averages from 85-90%.”
Amherst College
- U.S. News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 2
- Location: Amherst, MA
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 13%
- According to the website, “We probably average in any given year a roughly 75 to 80 percent acceptance rate.
Swarthmore College
- U.S. News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 3 (tie)
- Location: Swarthmore, PA
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 11%
- According to the website, “In 2017, Swarthmore’s acceptance rate for the 3 graduating seniors was 67% and the 26 alumni/ae applicants was 85% for an overall acceptance rate of 83%.”
Wellesley College
- News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 3 (tie)
- Location: Wellesley, MA
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 22%
- According to the Wellesley News, “From 2008-2018, Wellesley had a mean medical school acceptance rate of 72 percent.”
Bowdoin College
- News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 5 (tie)
- Location: Brunswick, ME
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 14%
- 91% of students who applied through Bowdoin to enter medical school were accepted in 2015.
Carleton College
- News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 5 (tie)
- Location: Northfield, MN
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 21%
- According to their Pre-Health website, “Carleton supports all of the students and alumni who decide to apply, regardless of GPA and MCAT score, and our acceptance rate for the past 5 year period is 82%. Approximately 77% of the accepted students/alumni are accepted on the first try. For those applicants who earned a GPA of 3.5 or better and an MCAT score at or above the 79th percentile (a 30 on the old MCAT or a 508 on the new MCAT), the acceptance rate for the same time period is 90%.”(Suggested reading: Old MCAT to New MCAT: Score Conversion and MCAT Percentiles)
Middlebury College
- News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 5 (tie)
- Location: Middlebury, VT
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 17%
- According to the website, “For Middlebury College grads starting med school in 2018, the admit rate more than doubled recent national averages: a whopping 89 percent.”
Pomona College
- News & World Report Rank (Liberal Arts Colleges): 5 (tie)
- Location: Pomona, CA
- Private or Public: Private
- Undergraduate acceptance rate: 8%
- According to their website, “in 2018, the average acceptance rate of Pomona alumni to medical schools was 85%.”
Liberal Arts Colleges’ Medical School Acceptance Rates
Hundreds of majors are available in today’s colleges, ranging from astrobiology to comic art to theme park engineering and everything in between. With so many options, some students who aspire to be doctors may question if they’ll have to forego the veritable fairgrounds of undergraduate education.
The good news is that only 57.7% of entering medical students in 2020 have degrees in biological sciences, according to the AAMC. What did the other half of the class study? Some chose humanities, while others chose physical and social sciences—all of which are included in a liberal arts education.
| Acceptance Rates (%) to U.S. Medical Schools by Primary Undergraduate Major, Class of 2024 | |||
| Major | Total Applicants | Total Matriculants | Acceptance Rate (%) |
| Biological Sciences | 30,921 | 12,845 | 42% |
| Humanities | 1,738 | 832 | 48% |
| Math and Statistics | 342 | 156 | 46% |
| Other | 8,525 | 3,391 | 40% |
| Physical Sciences | 4,680 | 2,240 | 48% |
| Social Sciences | 4,810 | 1,991 | 41% |
| Specialized Health Sciences | 2,014 | 784 | 39% |
| All Majors | 53,030 | 22,239 | 42% |
In fact, students whose majors were not in the biological sciences matriculated into medical school at the same rate as students whose majors were in the biological sciences (46.4%). So, if your premed child wants to study English, art history, psychology, or sociology, you don’t have to be concerned.
While large lectures on anatomy and physiology are an important component of premedical education, your child may want to attend a smaller campus where they can attend seminars on non-medical or non-biological subjects.
bowdoin college medical school acceptance rate
At Bowdoin, roughly eight percent of students head off to medical school. Acceptance rates are incredibly competitive, and Bowdoin students have done very well. In recent years almost nine out of ten who have applied have been admitted. Last year it was 97 percent.
medical school admission statistics 2020
Average GPA, MCAT Score and Acceptance Rate for Every Medical School in 2021 (M.D.)
Show 102550100 entriesSearch:
| Medical School | Median GPA | Median MCAT | Medical School Acceptance Rate | Total Applicants | Total Interviewed | Total Accepted | Total Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albany Medical College | 3.7 | 511 | N/A | 10247 | 793 | N/A | 139 |
| Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University | 3.7 | 510 | 12% | 3074 | 558 | 372 | 233 |
| Baylor College of Medicine | 3.93 | 518 | 4.9% | 6689 | 840 | 329 | 186 |
| Boston University | 3.75 | 517 | 6.5% | 7771 | 1019 | 503 | 174 |
| Brown University (Alpert) | 3.77 | 514 | 3% | 9995 | 380 | 276 | 144 |
| California Northstate University | 3.69 | 512 | N/A | 4184 | 357 | N/A | 96 |
| Case Western Reserve University | 3.81 | 518 | 7% | 7556 | 1083 | 530 | 214 |
| Central Michigan University | 3.74 | 506 | N/A | 5393 | 423 | N/A | 103 |
| Columbia University | 3.9 | 521 | 3.5% | 8258 | 1073 | 278 | 140 |
| Cornell University (Weill) | 3.88 | 515 | 5.1% | 6385 | 798 | 323 | 106 |
Medical School Acceptance Rates
When deciding where to apply to medical school, a student must research each medical school’s average acceptance rate. By understanding school of medicine acceptance rates, applicants can understand for what medical schools they are most competitive. However, many medical schools do not disclose how many applicants they actually accept.
Medical schools may only publish how many applications they receive, the number of applicants they interview and how many actually matriculate. Therefore, it isn’t always possible to know what percentage of applicants interviewed are ultimately accepted.
Typically, the more competitive the medical school, the lower the acceptance rate. There are some medical schools that one might not think are very competitive based on the average GPAs and MCATs of accepted students. However, some of these “less competitive” schools receive a very large numbers of applications and interview a small percentage of applicants making them quite competitive.
Average MCAT Score (2021)
In 2021, the average MCAT for students accepted to allopathic medical schools in the United States in 2020-2021 was 511.5 For reference purposes, know that the highest possible MCAT score is a 528 with with a 132 on each of the four sections. which is the same as the previous year. The typical MCAT score one needs to be competitive for medical school admission to allopathic medical schools in the United States is a 510.
MCAT scores of 507 or below are generally considered low and not competitive for allopathic medical school admissions. There are exceptions, however, to this rule. An MCAT score of 518 or above is considered exceptional. Most medical schools have MCAT cut off scores meaning that an applicant must earn above a specified score in order for the medical school admissions committee to review an application. Unfortunately, medical school do not always make this data public.
Earning the highest MCAT score possible with the lowest number of exam attempts is ideal for getting in to medical school. For example, the student who has taken the MCAT three times, earning scores of 503, 504, and 512, may be evaluated as a less competitive applicant than the applicant who took the exam once and earned a 512 on the first attempt. Medical schools see all exam results which is why one high score among several lower scores could be interpreted as an outlier.
Which medical schools have some of the lowest median MCAT scores for accepted students?
| Lowest Average MCAT Scores By School | |
|---|---|
| Medical School | MCAT Score |
| University of Mississippi | 503 |
| Louisiana State | 504 |
| Northeast Ohio | 506 |
| Central Michigan | 506 |
| Florida State University | 506 |
| Southern Illinois | 506 |
| Michigan State | 507 |
| Brody | 508 |
| Cooper | 508 |
| Loma Linda | 508 |
best pre med schools
Note: Seven- or eight-year BS/MD programs, such as Brown’s PLME, are not included. Rankings are based on four key pre-application elements: GPA, MCAT prep, patient care experience, and research experience.
1. Harvard College
Location: Cambridge, MA
Acceptance rate: 4.5%
U.S. News Ranking: 2
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1460-1580 SAT, 33-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,788
As of 2012, Harvard reported an extremely high med school acceptance rate of 95%. With some of the smartest students in the world, a great location among the numerous Boston medical facilities, and groups such as the Harvard Premedical Society, Harvard offers a plethora of invaluable resources to its pre-med students. The college is also known for its rampant grade inflation, with the median grade being an A-, so that’s good news for your GPA.
2. Duke University
Location: Durham, NC
Acceptance rate: 7.8%
U.S. News Ranking: 10
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1500-1560 SAT, 33-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,682
Duke, while very academically competitive, still boasts a high 85% med school acceptance rate. Students at Duke also have access to a wide variety of resources, from personalized advising to research and internship opportunities provided by Durham and Duke’s prestigious School of Medicine.
3. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Acceptance rate: 7.7%
U.S. News Ranking: 6
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1460-1550 SAT, 33-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 10,183
UPenn is one of the best pre-med schools in the nation, boasting a 76% med school acceptance rate. UPenn’s core pre-med courses and suggested courses both prepare students well for the MCAT by emphasizing all aspects of the test. UPenn is also in an excellent location for pre-med students, with facilities like the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia nearby.
4. Washington University in Saint Louis
Location: St. Louis, MO
Acceptance rate: 14%
U.S. News Ranking: 19
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1480-1550 SAT, 33-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,751
Pre-med students at WashU not only have access to a four year advising program, but also to MCAT prep classes, mock interviews, writing workshops for med school applications, and two local hospitals. WashU ensures that their pre-med students are on the right path by providing constant hands-on assistance and meaningful research and internships.
5. Rice University
Location: Houston, TX
Acceptance rate: 8.7%
U.S. News Ranking: 17
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1470-1560 SAT, 33-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,978
The Office of Academic Advising at Rice provides extensive resources to pre-med students, including a database of relevant research and internship opportunities and pre-med advising orientations. Additionally, Rice’s Joint Admission Medical Program helps low-income Texas students afford med school. Houston is also a town with many large hospitals that provide research, shadowing, and volunteering opportunities.
6. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, CA
Acceptance rate: 4.4%
U.S. News Ranking: 6
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1420-1570 SAT, 32-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,087
Stanford offers a variety of extracurricular and research options to their undergraduate students. Their Stanford Immersion in Medicine Series (SIMS) Program gives sophomores, juniors, and seniors the opportunity to shadow doctors at Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto VA Hospital, and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
7. Northwestern University
Location: Evanston, IL
Acceptance rate: 9.1%
U.S. News Ranking: 9
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1450-1540 SAT, 33-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 8,231
Northwestern pre-med students have access to a wealth of resources through the school’s Health Professions Advising. Resources range from MCAT advice/training to GPA calculators to local shadowing opportunities. Northwestern makes sure its pre-med students are well-informed and prepared for med school.
8. Brown University
Location: Providence, RI
Acceptance rate: 7.1%
U.S. News Ranking: 14
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1420-1550 SAT, 32-35 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,043
As of 2018, Brown students had an 85% med school acceptance rate. Brown’s Health Careers Advising offers plenty of resources to get experience in the medical field, such as clinical experience and volunteer opportunities. Students at Brown also have the opportunity to get hands-on experience as an EMT working with Brown EMS. Brown is a great option for students wanting to pursue a non-STEM major while completing medical school science course prerequisites—the school has an open curriculum, meaning there are no general education requirements, and students can take whatever courses they want, as long as they complete their major requirements.
9. Amherst College
Location: Amherst, MA
Acceptance rate: 11.3%
U.S. News Ranking: 2 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1420-1530 SAT, 31-34 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,855
Amherst has an open curriculum as well, so it’s another college especially well-suited for pre-med students wanting to major in a non-STEM subject. Beyond that, Amherst is a strong choice as a liberal arts college. Due to its smaller enrollment and emphasis on undergraduate education, students will be able to get to know their professors, leading to stronger mentorship and standout letters of recommendation. You will also have access to pre-med advisors who are invested in your success. The Pre-Health Professions Committee is also very involved in the medical school admissions process, helping coordinate mock interviews, providing insider information (interview account, data on past applicants, etc.), and advising you throughout the process. The medical school acceptance rate is 75-80%, though this rate increases to over 90% when you include re-applicants.
10. Case Western Reserve University
Location: Cleveland, OH
Acceptance rate: 29%
U.S. News Ranking: 40
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1370-1490 SAT, 30-34 ACT
Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,262
Case Western is a prime example of a college with an excellent location, as it is located right next to the world-famous Cleveland Clinic and other hospitals, such as the University Hospitals and Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. Students will have a wide array of research and volunteering opportunities available to them. CWRU students can also gain clinical experience through the campus’ EMS team, or by working in the local nursing homes, hospice care facilities, or patient recovery houses.
