How do medical school applicants make their final decision on where to attend?
First, the reality of the med school admission process is that over half of the applicants to allopathic medical school nationally won’t receive any offers; the acceptance rate last year was about 47%. And based on the most recent entering student survey, only 55% of respondents were accepted to more than one medical school. So, having choices is a luxury and privilege in this process! Of those who do hold multiple offers, based on that same survey, the factors cited as important to applicants most frequently were: curriculum/teaching methods; ability to place students into residency programs; quality of facilities; location; reputation; and interactions with students.
Among our Princeton applicants, closer to 70% of our accepted applicants receive more than one offer from MD and/or DO schools. We don’t survey them in quite the same way, but anecdotally, the factors that come up frequently are location (e.g., proximity to support system; urban/rural based on preference); curriculum (especially for the clinical part— hospital system, patients demographics, clerkship settings); opportunities that match their interests (e.g., research, working with underserved communities, community engagement, global health, specific residency interests); grading system; cost; and the abstract “vibe” of the school – that gut instinct feeling you get from interacting with a place and the people.
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