Factors Affecting the Probability of Acceptance

 While there are many factors affecting acceptance into a health-profession school which you can control (good grades, medical work experience, solid admissions exam scores, good interviews, a laudatory evaluation letter), there are other factors which are outside of your control. Data supporting each of the following acceptance criteria for U.S. Medical Schools are available from https://www.aamc.org (the American Association of Medical Colleges Homepage). Data for other health professions most likely follows the trends observed for Medical School admissions.

Race or Ethnicity: Members of the four groups currently designated as under- represented (African-American, Mexican-American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, mainland Puerto Rican) are more likely to be accepted than a non-minority student with the same qualifications.

State of Residence: All state schools heavily favor residents of their state. Where you are from is not important to private medical schools. You should apply to all of the medical schools in your home state. If your home state does not have a medical school, your state probably has an agreement with other states that will allow you to be treated as a resident of the state with the medical school.

Gender: A review of the 1997 AAMC data shows that, in general, the percentage of women enrolled in medical school is higher than the percentage of women who applied to medical school. Thus, medical schools appear to be aiming for a more even (50/50) enrollment by gender.  However, you should note that most schools still show enrollments that are > 50%.