10 Medical Schools That Receive the Most Applications

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search. 

Medical school continues to be a rigorous but sought-after destination for college graduates. In total, medical schools across the country received more than 580,000 applications from students vying to be members of the 2010-2011 entering class, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges. The average student applied to 14 medical schools, the AAMC reported. 

[See which medical schools had the lowest acceptance rates in 2010.]

Among the 123 medical schools that reported applicant data to U.S. News, institutions averaged 4,304 applications each that year, though a few schools drew thousands more prospects than any others.

Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia received more applications to its entering class of 2010 than any other medical school in the country, drawing 12,582 prospective students. Several other nearby schools proved popular as well: Jefferson Medical College and Temple University School of Medicine, both located in Philadelphia, drew among the top 10 highest numbers of applications with 9,761 and 9,624 applications, respectively. (The city's remaining medical school, the highly ranked University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, reported receiving 5,338 applicants for its 2010 entering class—thousands less than any school on this list.) Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine also received one of the highest numbers of applications, drawing 8,487.

[Use these four tips to choose the right medical school for you.]

Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.

 These 10 medical schools attracted the highest numbers of applicants for their entering classes in 2010, based on school-reported data to U.S. News:

*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one fourth of all medical and osteopathic schools. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.  

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Medical School Compass to find application and acceptance data for every school, residency statistics, and much more. 

U.S. News surveyed more than 140 medical schools for our 2010 survey of research and primary care programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of school facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Medical Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.