List builder

Hard filters come first and remove schools whose reported policy rules you out: out-of-state, Canadian, international or DACA applicants not considered, community-college prerequisites not accepted, a test you have chosen not to take, or a cost above your cap. Each exclusion names the policy behind it.

Bands compare your numbers to the school's most recently published class median (or mean, where that is all the school publishes). Within band means within 3 MCAT points and 0.15 GPA of the median. Below median means at least one number is further below it than that. Above median means both numbers clear the band. The arithmetic is shown in the "Why" column. These are planning bands, not admissions predictions: the median is where half the class sits, holistic review is real, in-state preference changes the odds at public schools, and a school with no published statistics is not necessarily easier or harder.

The national rate at the top is the AAMC's three-year acceptance rate for applicants in your GPA and MCAT range, across all MD schools combined. It is the best-published base rate and it is not a prediction for any one school. In-state shares marked "(AAMC)" come from FACTS table A-1 for the 2025 entering class; others come from the school's own page.

Advisors generally suggest a list that spans bands, weighted toward schools whose mission matches your experiences, with the in-state public schools included wherever you are a resident.