Medical Schools With the Highest Interview Rates (2026-2027)

Some medical schools interview a surprisingly large percentage of their applicants, but I want to be careful with what that number actually means before you start adding schools to your list because they appear to have a 20%, 30%, or even 50% interview rate.

For this article, I went through current and recent medical school admissions pages, class profiles, applicant-pool reports, AAMC guidance, Reddit, r/premed, and Student Doctor Network discussions looking specifically at medical school interview invitation rates. I calculated rates from publicly reported applicant and interview counts whenever possible, and I separated state-specific or regional applicant pools from schools that recruit much more broadly.

That last part changes the answer substantially. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, for example, reports that 221 of 277 Arkansas applicants were interviewed in 2026, which works out to approximately 79.8%. That is an enormous interview rate, but it would be very misleading for an applicant from another state to look at 79.8% and assume they personally have anything close to an 80% chance of interviewing there. UAMS explicitly gives priority consideration to Arkansas residents.

If you already have an interview and are trying to understand your chances from that point forward, that is a different statistic. My guide to the medical schools with the highest post-interview acceptance rates looks at the percentage of interviewed applicants who eventually receive offers, while my broader Complete Medical School Interview Guide walks through the process from receiving an invitation through interview day and the final admissions decision.

Which Medical Schools Have the Highest Interview Rates?

Among the medical schools where I could verify usable interview data from current or recent public sources, some of the highest rates appear below. I am intentionally not calling this a definitive national ranking because medical schools do not all publish the same information, some report total applications while others report completed applications, and many public schools have applicant pools that are heavily shaped by state residency.

Medical School	Applicant Population Used	Applicants	Interviewed	Calculated Interview Rate	Important Context
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences	Arkansas applicants, 2026	277	221	79.8%	Arkansas residents receive priority consideration
Brody School of Medicine	North Carolina applicant pool, historical official typical figure	Not specified	About 50% of pool	About 50%	Current eligibility is limited to NC residents or certain recent UNC System graduates
Washington State University	Total AMCAS applicants, entering 2026	1,669	350	21.0%	Strong Washington focus; 93.1% of interviewed applicants were WA residents
Creighton University	Class of 2030	7,253	999	13.8%	Private school with students from across the United States
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine	2026 MD applicants	5,499	681	12.4%	Private, nationally recruited MD program
University of North Dakota	Approximate annual applicant pool	About 1,800	200 to 240	About 11.1% to 13.3%	Most interview spots go to applicants with North Dakota ties
Albert Einstein College of Medicine	Most recent published admissions statistics	8,897	966	10.9%	Private school, broad applicant pool
Columbia VP&S	Class of 2030	7,591	745	9.8%	Private, national applicant pool
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	Class of 2030	Just over 8,300	More than 750	More than 9.0%	Private school; residency is not used as an admissions distinction
University of Cincinnati	2026 entering class	6,782	576	8.5%	Public school; 67% of the entering class were Ohio residents

These calculations come from the schools’ own published data wherever possible. UAMS reports its 2026 Arkansas figures directly, WSU publishes 1,669 AMCAS applications and 350 interviews for its entering 2026 class, Creighton reports 7,253 applications and 999 interviews, Mayo reports 5,499 MD applications and 681 interviews, Columbia reports 7,591 applicants and 745 interviewed candidates, and Cincinnati reports 6,782 applications with 576 interviews.

Einstein’s most recent published statistics report 8,897 applications and 966 interviews, while Icahn’s Class of 2030 was selected from just over 8,300 applicants after more than 750 interviews. UND says it receives approximately 1,800 applications each year and interviews about 200 to 240 applicants, with most interview positions going to applicants who have North Dakota residency ties.

I would use this table as a starting point rather than treating it like a leaderboard. A 21% interview rate at a state-focused school can be less useful to you than a 12% rate at a private national school if you do not belong to the population that the first school was designed to serve.

Which Medical School Has the Highest Interview Rate?

Among the current public data I could verify, the highest figure I found was UAMS interviewing 221 of 277 Arkansas applicants in 2026, which produces an Arkansas-resident interview rate of approximately 79.8%. UAMS explicitly says it is a public institution and gives priority consideration to Arkansas residents, so I would describe this as one of the highest state-resident interview rates, not as an 80% general medical school interview rate.

Brody provides another excellent example of why the population matters. An official school bulletin historically described its interview volume as approximately 50% of the North Carolina applicant pool, while the current admissions rules limit consideration to legal North Carolina residents or applicants who recently earned a bachelor’s degree through the UNC System. Its current interview season runs from September through February for selected applicants.

Those are fantastic numbers if you actually qualify for those applicant pools. They are not evidence that an applicant anywhere in the United States can add either school and suddenly have a 50% to 80% interview chance.

Which Medical Schools Have High Interview Rates for Out-of-State Applicants?

This is the question I would care about much more if I were building a national school list.

Private schools generally deserve more attention because residency frequently does not impose the same structural constraint that exists at mission-driven public programs. Among the recent school-published figures I could independently verify, Creighton interviewed about 13.8% of its total applicant pool, Mayo interviewed about 12.4% of MD applicants, Einstein’s recent published rate was about 10.9%, Columbia interviewed about 9.8%, and Icahn’s current Class of 2030 figures put its overall rate above 9%.

Icahn is especially useful for understanding the difference between a private national school and a public residency-focused school. Its admissions FAQ explicitly says that applicants are not treated differently based on New York residency, which means the overall interview figure is much more relevant to a non-New York applicant than an overall percentage from a public school that reserves much of its class for residents.

Creighton’s current profile similarly says its students come from across the United States and beyond. With 999 interviewees from 7,253 applications, its roughly 13.8% overall rate is one of the more interesting current figures I found for an established private MD school with a geographically broad applicant pool.

I still would not call any of these your personal interview probability. A 13.8% school-wide rate combines applicants with dramatically different MCAT scores, GPAs, experiences, essays, mission alignment, application timing, and overall competitiveness.

Medical Schools With High In-State Interview Rates

Public medical schools can produce some of the most attractive interview percentages in the country because they are often trying to train physicians for a particular state or region.

UAMS is the clearest current example I found, with approximately 79.8% of Arkansas applicants receiving interviews in 2026. UND reports that most of its 200 to 240 annual interview positions go to applicants with North Dakota residency ties, while Brody’s historical school guidance described interviews for around half of its North Carolina applicant pool.

Washington State University shows the same pattern from another angle. Its entering 2026 class received 1,669 AMCAS applications and interviewed 350 applicants, giving an overall rate of about 21.0%. However, WSU’s detailed applicant-pool data show that 93.1% of interviewed applicants were Washington residents, and 81.7% had three or four defined ties to Washington.

That is why I would never sort schools from highest interview rate to lowest and blindly use the top 20 as an application list. The number becomes useful only after you ask whether you resemble the population for whom that number was generated.

Why Medical School Interview Rates Can Be Misleading

The first problem is the denominator.

WSU received 1,669 total AMCAS applications for its entering 2026 class, sent 773 secondary applications, received 723 completed applications, and interviewed 350 students. If I divide 350 by all 1,669 AMCAS applications, the interview rate is approximately 21.0%. If I divide those same 350 interviews by 723 completed applications, the rate becomes approximately 48.4%.

Neither calculation is mathematically wrong. They answer different questions.

If you have not applied yet and want to know what percentage of everyone who sends that school an AMCAS application eventually interviews, 21.0% is more informative. If the school has already screened you, sent you a secondary, and you have completed it, the second number may better describe where you are in the funnel.

This denominator problem appears all over medical school admissions websites and third-party databases. Before comparing two percentages, make sure both were calculated from the same stage of the application process.

How I Calculated Medical School Interview Rates

For the main comparisons in this article, I use:

Applicants interviewed ÷ applications received × 100

If a school receives 5,000 applications and interviews 500 people, its overall interview invitation rate is 10%.

I prefer total applications as the starting denominator when the goal is helping someone decide where to apply because it captures the complete pre-interview funnel. When a school screens applicants before sending secondaries, I will tell you about that process separately rather than quietly substituting completed secondary applications and making the interview rate look much higher.

I also preserve the applicant population reported by the school. If a medical school tells us that 221 of 277 Arkansas residents interviewed, I calculate an Arkansas-resident rate. I do not relabel that number as the overall interview rate.

Medical School Interview Rate vs. Post-Interview Acceptance Rate

These are two completely different statistics, and I see them confused constantly.

The interview rate asks what percentage of applicants make it from application to interview. The post-interview acceptance rate asks what percentage of people who already interviewed eventually receive an offer.

A school can have an extremely low interview rate and a relatively high post-interview acceptance rate if it conducts aggressive screening before the interview. Another school can interview more liberally but accept a smaller percentage of those interviewees afterward.

Cincinnati is a useful example. Its 2026 class profile reports 6,782 applicants, 576 interviews, and 380 acceptances. That means only about 8.5% of applicants reached the interview, but approximately 66.0% of interviewees ultimately received offers.

If you want the second number rather than the first, read my Medical Schools With the Highest Post-Interview Acceptance Rates. I also maintain a broader Medical School Acceptance Rates Post Interview resource for school-specific comparisons.

Does a High Interview Rate Mean a Medical School Is Easier to Get Into?

Not necessarily, because the applicant pool is not random.

A medical school could interview 15% of applicants while having much higher median academic metrics than a school interviewing 8%. Another school might interview half of its eligible in-state pool only after residency requirements and minimum screening rules have already eliminated most applicants who would otherwise consider applying.

The AAMC explains that schools decide whom to interview by considering academic proficiency, whether an applicant is likely to thrive within the institution, and whether the applicant’s experiences, attributes, and goals align with the school’s mission. It also notes that medical schools routinely receive many more qualified applicants than they can interview.

That means a 10% interview rate should not be read as “I have a one-in-ten chance.” You are not a lottery ticket randomly drawn from a container of 10 applicants. Your own fit with the school determines whether the overall percentage is even remotely representative of your situation.

What Is a Good Medical School Interview Rate?

I would consider a double-digit overall interview rate relatively attractive for a broadly national MD program when the underlying data are current and the denominator includes the full applicant pool. That is not an official AAMC threshold, and I would not exclude a good-fit school just because its rate is 8% rather than 11%.

The current examples illustrate why context matters more than setting one cutoff. Mayo’s approximately 12.4% rate comes from a national private-school applicant pool, while UND’s roughly 11% to 13% overall range comes from a school that explicitly says most interview positions go to applicants with North Dakota ties. The percentages can look almost identical while meaning very different things for an applicant without those ties.

I would therefore use interview rate as one column in your school-selection spreadsheet alongside residency preference, GPA and MCAT range, mission, clinical and service expectations, location, cost, curriculum, and whether you would actually attend.

What Is the Average Medical School Interview Rate?

I could not find a current AAMC publication giving one trustworthy national school-level average interview invitation rate that I would be comfortable presenting as the official national number.

You will find third-party sites publishing averages, but these datasets often have missing interview counts, mixed admissions cycles, or schools reporting different denominator stages. One current comparison page, for example, openly notes that many schools have not published current interview counts and therefore mixes data years throughout its table.

Looking at current individual-school figures is more useful. Some highly selective national programs interview fewer than one in ten applicants, others sit around 10% to 14%, and state or mission-focused programs can interview much larger proportions of their eligible resident pools.

I would rather give you that range with the limitations explained than invent a precise national average that appears scientific but combines incompatible data.

Which Medical Schools Interview the Most Applicants?

The number of interviews is another statistic that can look similar to interview rate while answering a different question.

Creighton interviewed 999 applicants for its Class of 2030, Einstein’s published data include 966 interviews, Columbia interviewed 745 applicants, Mayo interviewed 681 MD applicants, and Cincinnati interviewed 576 applicants.

A school conducting 1,000 interviews is not automatically easier to interview at than one conducting 600. If the first receives 15,000 applications and the second receives 4,000, the second school may actually have the higher interview rate.

Absolute interview volume is more useful once you combine it with the applicant denominator.

Do In-State Applicants Get More Medical School Interviews?

At many public medical schools, yes, although the size of the advantage varies enormously and some public schools are far more open to nonresidents than others.

The AAMC specifically advises applicants that public medical schools may consider an out-of-state applicant’s connections with the state or institution when nonresident applicants are not commonly matriculated.

The school-specific data make that idea concrete. UAMS publishes an Arkansas-resident interview rate near 80%, WSU’s interviewed pool was 93.1% Washington residents in its entering 2026 cycle, and UND states directly that most of its interview positions go to applicants with North Dakota ties.

This is why I would always inspect in-state and out-of-state interview behavior before adding a public medical school. A high overall interview rate can conceal a tremendous difference between the two groups.

Should You Apply to Medical Schools With High Interview Rates?

Yes, when the school also makes sense for your application.

I would not add a school purely because its interview percentage is high. If its median academics are far outside your range, its mission has little connection with your experiences, it strongly favors residents of another state, or you would not realistically attend, that percentage is not accomplishing much for you.

I would instead use high interview rates to identify schools deserving a closer look. Then I would move to the AspiringMD Medical School Guide for Premeds and evaluate the other parts of the school list that determine whether your application actually fits.

The same approach protects you from the opposite mistake. A school with a 7% or 8% interview rate should not automatically be removed if your academics, experiences, geography, and mission alignment make you an especially logical applicant for that institution.

How Should You Use Interview Rates to Build a Medical School List?

Start by separating public and private schools because state residency changes the interpretation immediately. For every public school outside your own state, determine whether it regularly interviews and matriculates nonresidents and whether it requires meaningful state or regional ties.

Then compare your GPA and MCAT with the school’s recent class, but do not stop there. Look at its mission, patient population, service expectations, research emphasis, geographic priorities, prerequisite rules, and the types of experiences the admissions office highlights.

Finally, use interview rate as a tiebreaking source of information rather than a substitute for fit. If two schools make similar sense for you and one interviews a meaningfully larger share of applicants like you, that can be useful when deciding how to allocate limited application fees and secondary-writing time.

This also protects you from creating the illusion of mathematical precision. An 11.2% interview rate at School A versus 10.1% at School B does not mean School A is automatically the better application.

What I Found Searching Reddit and r/premed About Medical School Interview Rates

For this article, I specifically searched Reddit and r/premed discussions about interview rates, in-state versus out-of-state applicants, MSAR data, and how students use interview percentages when building their school lists.

One of the most useful themes was how quickly residency changes the numbers. In a widely discussed r/premed post, an applicant compared state-resident interview data across public schools in two large states and found substantially different percentages, with some schools interviewing only around 6% to 13% of resident applicants while several schools in the comparison state were reported above 20%. I would not treat one Reddit user’s spreadsheet as an authoritative admissions source, but the exercise illustrates exactly why a generic “public medical school interview rate” is not enough.

Another r/premed discussion about choosing out-of-state schools repeatedly recommended looking at interview data rather than simply the percentage of the matriculating class that comes from outside the state. Those two numbers answer different questions because a school can interview many nonresidents while ultimately enrolling a smaller number after accepted applicants choose other programs.

The community discussions also reinforced something I think applicants sometimes forget while building spreadsheets: these percentages are useful for avoiding obviously poor-fit schools, but they cannot tell you whether an admissions committee will like your particular application. Two people applying to the same school are not necessarily carrying the same 10% probability.

What I Found Searching Student Doctor Network

I also searched Student Doctor Network specifically for discussions about interview-rate calculations, state residency, school-list construction, and how verified faculty contributors interpret admissions statistics.

One of the best examples came from an applicant who tried to combine a school’s interview percentage with a post-interview matriculation percentage to create a single numerical estimate of their chances. A verified faculty contributor pushed back on that method and emphasized that state residency, applicant competitiveness, and the composition of the school’s pool make those simple probabilities misleading. The broader discussion reached the same conclusion I would use here: statistics become more informative after you first determine whether the school is actually appropriate for your profile.

Another SDN discussion looked at one school’s applicants by submission month and observed a much higher interview percentage among earlier applicants. A verified faculty contributor cautioned that the early and late applicant groups might differ in underlying strength, meaning the raw percentages could not prove that applying later caused the entire difference.

That is an important lesson for interpreting virtually every number in this article. Medical school applicants are not randomly assigned to states, application months, schools, GPA ranges, or mission categories. Observed interview rates contain selection effects, so I would use them to guide decisions without turning them into a personal admissions calculator.

What Medical School Admissions Officers Say About Getting an Interview

I also looked specifically for commentary from medical school admissions officers and former admissions leaders rather than relying only on applicant forums.

The AAMC’s guide to how medical schools review applications includes comments from multiple current and former admissions leaders. Their descriptions make it clear that interview selection is not simply a GPA and MCAT sort. Schools consider academics alongside experiences, personal attributes, goals, institutional culture, letters, essays, service, clinical exposure, and mission alignment when deciding whom to invite.

Sunny Nakae, an assistant dean for admissions quoted by the AAMC, makes the meaning of an invitation especially clear: most medical schools interview only a small percentage of their applicants, so receiving an invitation indicates significant school interest. Her advice is to know your own application, clearly communicate your motivation for medicine and interest in the school, prepare without sounding scripted, and use personal stories to demonstrate reflection and growth.

The AAMC’s own applicant interview guide similarly explains that interviews normally occur after a school has reviewed applications and selected a subset of candidates about whom it wants additional information. In other words, an interview invitation is meaningful, but it is meaningful because you passed a selective review stage, not because everyone who applies started with the same mathematical chance of reaching it.

That is how I would apply the admissions-officer perspective to this article. Use interview rates when choosing schools, but spend even more time asking whether your application gives that school a convincing reason to place you inside its interview group.

Does Getting a Medical School Interview Mean You Are Likely to Be Accepted?

Getting an interview is a very good sign, but whether you are now more likely than not to receive an acceptance varies dramatically by school.

The AAMC describes an interview invitation as evidence that the school is interested in learning more about you after reviewing your application. It does not say that receiving an interview means an acceptance is probable, and schools can have dramatically different interview-to-offer conversion rates.

This is where you should stop looking at the interview-rate table in this article and switch to my highest medical school post-interview acceptance rates analysis. A school can be difficult to interview at but relatively favorable after the invitation, which changes how you should interpret your position once you receive one.

Do Medical Schools Interview Their Best Applicants First?

I would not assume they do.

Medical schools can review applications in different orders based on completion date, reviewer assignment, residency, mission priorities, special programs, and other institutional processes. My broader interview hub discusses why I would not interpret an earlier invitation as proof that the school formally ranked you above someone interviewing later.

I had invitations at different points during my own application cycle, and the timing varied substantially from school to school. If you are trying to understand interview timing rather than school-level percentages, my guides on having no medical school interviews in September, having no medical school interviews in November, receiving a medical school interview in December, and receiving a medical school interview in January go month by month instead of treating the entire cycle as one period.

What Should You Do Once You Receive a Medical School Interview?

Once the invitation arrives, I would stop worrying about the school’s overall interview rate. You are already inside the numerator.

The more useful question becomes what the school is trying to learn about you that it could not determine from the application alone. The AAMC says interviews help schools evaluate qualities and applicant-school fit that are difficult to capture through GPA, MCAT scores, and written application materials alone.

Start with my Complete Medical School Interview Guide, then work through what to do before your medical school interview and what to study before your medical school interview. I would also practice the most common medical school interview questions and research the school closely enough that your answers demonstrate why its actual curriculum, mission, patient population, and opportunities fit what you have already done.

Before the day arrives, determine whether the school uses an open-file, closed-file, partially open-file, or MMI structure. My guide to open-file versus closed-file medical school interviews explains how the formats change what your interviewer may know about you, and the current medical schools using open-file interviews guide gives school-specific examples.

Frequently Asked Questions About Medical School Interview Rates

What percentage of medical school applicants get interviews?

There is no single percentage that accurately describes every U.S. medical school. Among the current public data reviewed for this article, nationally oriented schools often fell somewhere in the single digits to low teens, while state-focused programs could interview much larger percentages of residents or applicants with strong regional ties.

The school-specific rate is therefore more useful than trying to apply one national percentage to every application you submit.

Is a 10% medical school interview rate good?

For a broadly national medical school using total applications as its denominator, I would view a 10% interview rate as reasonably substantial. It still means roughly nine out of ten applications did not result in interviews, so the school remains highly selective.

Before comparing it with another school, make sure both rates use the same denominator and applicant population.

Is a 20% medical school interview rate high?

Yes, 20% is relatively high compared with many nationally competitive MD programs, but you should immediately investigate why it is that high.

WSU’s current overall rate is about 21%, for example, but the interviewed pool is overwhelmingly composed of Washington residents and applicants with extensive Washington ties.

Which private medical schools have high interview rates?

Among recent public figures I could verify, Creighton was approximately 13.8%, Mayo’s MD program approximately 12.4%, Einstein approximately 10.9% in its most recent published dataset, Columbia approximately 9.8%, and Icahn’s current Class of 2030 figures imply a rate above 9%.

Those are not necessarily the five highest private-school rates in the country because many schools do not publish current interview counts in comparable formats.

Which public medical schools have high interview rates?

Some public schools have extremely high interview rates for residents. UAMS interviewed approximately 79.8% of Arkansas applicants in its 2026 figures, while WSU interviewed 350 of 1,669 total AMCAS applicants for about 21.0%, with a strongly Washington-focused interview pool.

Public-school rates should almost always be checked by residency before you use them to make an application decision.

Do private medical schools care about state residency?

Many private schools do not have the formal resident preference found at state-supported public institutions, although geographic patterns can still emerge from who applies and whom the school recruits.

Icahn explicitly states that it makes no distinction between New York residents and nonresidents during admissions, which makes it a good example of why you should check the individual school’s policy rather than making assumptions from location alone.

Does receiving a secondary mean I am likely to get an interview?

Not necessarily. Some schools send secondaries to nearly all primary applicants, while others conduct meaningful screening before sending them.

WSU demonstrates how much this can change your apparent odds. It received 1,669 AMCAS applications, sent 773 secondaries, had 723 completed applications, and interviewed 350 candidates. Your position in the admissions funnel therefore matters.

Should I only apply to medical schools with high interview rates?

No. You should build a balanced school list around academic fit, residency, mission, experiences, application strength, and whether you would genuinely attend.

Interview rate is most helpful when it identifies an extreme mismatch or helps distinguish between otherwise sensible schools. It should not become the primary reason you apply somewhere.

Are medical school interview rates the same every year?

No. Application volume, interview capacity, class size, institutional priorities, residency policies, and admissions procedures can all change.

I would favor the newest first-party data available, but I would still preserve the year rather than presenting an older figure as though it came from the current cycle.

Where can I find medical school interview rates?

Start with individual medical school admissions and class-profile pages. The AAMC’s MSAR resources can provide additional school-specific admissions information, and the AAMC maintains current interview resources and policies for applicants.

I would use Reddit, SDN, and third-party databases to discover questions or identify possible trends, then verify important numbers through the medical school or AAMC whenever possible.

My Take on Medical Schools With the Highest Interview Rates

If you came to this article hoping to find a group of schools where sending an application gives you a 30%, 50%, or 80% chance of receiving an interview, I would be careful about reading the numbers that way. Some medical schools really do interview very large percentages of particular applicant populations, but residency, regional ties, secondary screening, mission fit, and applicant strength explain much of what you are seeing.

For an applicant building a broad national list, I find the current private-school figures more actionable. Creighton’s approximately 13.8% overall interview rate and Mayo’s approximately 12.4% MD rate are much easier to interpret nationally than a 50% state-resident rate from a public school you may not even be eligible to attend. That does not mean either private school is easy to enter; it means the denominator is more comparable to the applicant population most readers of this article are considering.

I would use interview-rate data to make your school list smarter, not mathematically rigid. Look for schools where your academics are plausible, your experiences connect naturally with the mission, your residency status is not a major disadvantage, and the institution actually interviews a meaningful portion of applicants like you. Then remember that the AAMC describes the interview invitation as a sign that a school has already reviewed your application and wants to know more about the person behind it.

Once that invitation arrives, the percentage that got you there becomes much less important. At that point, know your own application, understand the school, prepare without memorizing a script, and give the admissions committee a clearer picture of the person they already found interesting enough to interview.