The 2025–26 Cycle in Numbers
| US MD-granting schools, 2025–26 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Applicants | 54,699 (up 5.3% from 51,946) |
| Applications | 1,066,896 |
| Applications per applicant | 19.5 |
| Matriculants | 23,440 |
| Matriculants per applicant | about 43% |
| Median school: applications received | 6,180 |
| Median school: entering class | about 139 |
Source: AAMC FACTS Table 1 (applicants and matriculants, 2016–17 through 2025–26) and Table A-1 (applications and matriculants by school, 2025–26), aamc.org. Medians are across the 160 schools listed in Table A-1.
The median MD school receives about 45 applications for every seat. That is why medical applicants apply so widely: even a strong applicant faces long odds at any single school, and the protection comes from the list as a whole.
Residency Is the Biggest Lever
The single most useful number in the AAMC's tables is the gap between where applications go and where students enrol. Only 22% of applications went to schools in the applicant's own state of legal residence, but 59.3% of matriculants enrolled in-state. State public medical schools admit their own residents at far higher rates than the applicant pool alone would suggest.
| School | Applications from state residents | Matriculants who are state residents |
|---|---|---|
| Indiana | 8.8% | 86.6% |
| Medical University of South Carolina | 16.8% | 91.1% |
| Minnesota | 12.9% | 85.6% |
| Arkansas | 9.3% | 83.3% |
| Kansas | 8.6% | 81.5% |
| Hawai'i (Burns) | 8.5% | 79.2% |
AAMC FACTS Table A-1, 2025–26. In-state status is the applicant's state of legal residence.
Across all 160 schools, 58 filled at least three-quarters of their entering class with state residents and 26 filled 90% or more. At the other end, 29 schools filled fewer than a quarter of their seats in-state. For an out-of-state applicant, those are two very different kinds of school, even when their MCAT medians look the same.
Why the Mix Matters More Than the Count
Your chance of at least one acceptance is one minus the chance that every school says no. A hypothetical makes the residency point concrete. Twenty applications at a 5% chance each give about a 64% chance of at least one admit if decisions were independent. Keep fifteen of them and replace five with in-state schools where the chance is 30%, and the figure rises to about 92%. These are assumed odds, not data, and real decisions are correlated — the same file is read everywhere — so the true numbers are lower. But the lesson holds: a few schools where you are a strong candidate protect you more than many where you are one of thousands.
Find the medical schools that are realistic for you.
AdmitBase compares your MCAT and GPA with each US MD program's admitted-class data and sorts them into Safety, Target, Reach and Far Reach — then shows your chance of at least one acceptance across the schools you save.
Check my medical school odds →How Many Is Right for You
- At or above the medians of most schools on your list: 12–18 schools, including every in-state public program you would attend.
- Near the medians: 18–25 schools, weighted toward in-state and out-of-state-friendly programs.
- Below the medians, or from a state with few public schools: 25 or more, and look seriously at DO programs — see DO vs MD.
Most applications bring a secondary essay set and a fee, so the ceiling is usually time and money rather than strategy — see what professional school applications cost.
Build the List in This Order
- Every in-state public school you are competitive for. This is where the residency advantage lives.
- Out-of-state schools that enrol non-residents in real numbers — check the in-state share before you apply.
- National targets where your MCAT is at or above the median.
- A handful of reaches.
For where your numbers land, see acceptance rates by MCAT and GPA and what counts as a good MCAT score; for the full process, how to build a medical school list.
