Top Feeders to Medical School

Earning an excellent GPA in a rigorous, usually science-based major and scoring well on the MCATs are prerequisites to earning a spot in any American medical school.

Those seeking a spot in the nation’s most selective medical programs need to meet that criteria AND bring other compelling factors to the table. One such factor can be the prestige of your undergraduate college. While attending an elite undergraduate school is not a prerequisite for gaining acceptance into an elite medical school, it certainly can help, as our analysis demonstrates. This leads us to the Top Feeders to Medical School.

The two lists that follow showcase the top 30 “feeder” schools into the most highly-ranked MD programs. On the first list, for each school, we look at the raw number of students who go on to attend elite MD programs, as well as the two MD programs enrolling the most graduates from that undergraduate school. The second list looks at the top 30 producers when adjusted for a school’s undergraduate enrollment, which allows us to highlight schools that may be smaller in size, but that still send a consistent flow of graduates to the world’s premier medical schools.

In order to identify “top feeder” colleges, we relied on publicly available data from LinkedIn, a professional networking site featuring profiles of approximately 170 million workers across the United States. Specifically, we identified and analyzed the undergraduate backgrounds of more than 27,300 individuals who enrolled at twenty five of America’s most reputable MD programs, including those at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania (Perelman), New York University (Grossman), Stanford University, Columbia University, Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, UCLA (Geffen), University of California-San Francisco, Washington University, Cornell University (Weill), Duke University, University of Washington, University of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan, Yale University, University of Chicago (Pritzker), Northwestern University (Feinberg), Vanderbilt University, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, University of California at San Diego, Baylor College of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Case Western Reserve University, and Emory University.

Updated December 2022

Rank (Total)	Institution	#MD Graduates	Top Med School (#1)	Top Med School (#2)
1	Harvard University	1742	Harvard Medical School	Yale University School of Medicine
2	Stanford University	1269	Stanford University School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
3	Columbia University	998	Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons	Harvard Medical School
4	Yale University	991	Harvard Medical School	Yale University School of Medicine
5	University of Michigan	863	University of Michigan Medical School	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
6	Northwestern University	811	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
7	University of California, Berkeley	769	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
8	University of Pennsylvania	698	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
9	Duke University	694	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
10	University of California, Los Angeles	669	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
11	Cornell University	664	Weill Medical College of Cornell University	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
12	New York University	630	New York University School of Medicine	Weill Medical College of Cornell University
13	Johns Hopkins University	599	The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
14	Princeton University	563	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
15	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	534	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
16	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	439	Harvard Medical School	Stanford University School of Medicine
17	Brown University	419	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Yale University School of Medicine
18	Washington University in St. Louis	402	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine
19	Dartmouth College	396	Harvard Medical School	Weill Medical College of Cornell University
20	University of Washington	360	University of Washington - School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
21	Emory University	356	Emory University School of Medicine	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
22	University of California, San Diego	301	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	University of California, San Diego - School of Medicine
23	Rice University	300	Baylor College of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
24	University of Texas at Austin	298	Baylor College of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
25	Vanderbilt University	283	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine	Emory University School of Medicine
26	University of Notre Dame	259	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine	University of Michigan Medical School
27	Case Western Reserve University	247	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
28	University of Chicago	244	The University of Chicago Prtizker School of Medicine	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine
29	University of PIttsburgh	189	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
29	University of Virginia	189	Emory University School of Medicine	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Top Feeder Rankings (adjusted for undergraduate enrollment)

Rank (Total)	Institution	#MD Graduates	Top Med School (#1)	Top Med School (#2)
1	Stanford University	1269	Stanford University School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
2	Harvard University	1742	Harvard Medical School	Yale University School of Medicine
3	Yale University	991	Harvard Medical School	Yale University School of Medicine
4	Columbia University	998	Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons	Harvard Medical School
5	Duke University	694	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
6	Princeton University	563	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
7	Johns Hopkins University	599	The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
8	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	439	Harvard Medical School	Stanford University School of Medicine
9	Amherst College	176	Harvard Medical School	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
10	Northwestern University	811	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
11	California Institute of Technology	85	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	University of California, San Diego - School of Medicine
12	Dartmouth College	396	Harvard Medical School	Weill Medical College of Cornell University
13	Haverford College	106	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
14	Williams College	166	Harvard Medical School	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
15	Swarthmore College	118	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
16	Rice University	300	Baylor College of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
17	Pomona College	115	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
18	Brown University	419	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Yale University School of Medicine
19	Davidson College	109	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine	Emory University School of Medicine
20	University of Pennsylvania	698	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
21	Washington University in St. Louis	402	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine
22	Emory University	356	Emory University School of Medicine	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
23	Case Western Reserve University	247	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
24	Cornell University	664	Weill Medical College of Cornell University	University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
25	Vanderbilt University	283	Vanderbilt University School of Medicine	Emory University School of Medicine
26	Bowdoin College	259	Harvard Medical School	Emory University School of Medicine
27	University of Chicago	244	The University of Chicago Prtizker School of Medicine	Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine
28	Wellesley College	93	Yale University School of Medicine	Harvard Medical School
29	Wesleyan University	107	Weill Medical College of Cornell University	Yale University School of Medicine
30	Oberlin College	90	Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Does institutional selectivity matter?

When applying to medical school, yes, it appears that institutional selectivity does in fact play a role. In our sample, of the students who went on to enroll at America’s best MD programs, approximately 63% graduated from colleges categorized as “Most Selective” or “Extremely Selective.” Only 17% of elite medical school students in our sample graduated from schools indicated as minimally selective or non-selective. Click here to see how we group colleges by selectivity.

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