Top 20 Medical Schools in the US Ranked by NIH Research Funding

The top 20 medical schools in the US, ranked by the federal research funding each school received from the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2025, are UCSF, Washington University in St. Louis, Penn, Yale, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Pittsburgh, Duke, Michigan and Columbia in positions 1 through 10. Positions 11 through 20 are Mount Sinai, NYU Grossman, UC San Diego, UCLA, Emory, Northwestern, UNC, the University of Washington, Weill Cornell and UT Southwestern.

Comparing the top medical schools in the US means looking at more than their positions in medical school rankings. They differ in when patient care starts, how much research is required, what a student may pay, whether state residency affects admission and where clinical training happens, and those differences can matter more to you than a small gap in research funding.

The Top 20 at a Glance

• NIH funding across the 20 schools ranged from about $311.7 million to about $724.2 million in fiscal year 2025.
• NYU Grossman covers tuition for every MD student, Johns Hopkins uses family-income thresholds, Columbia and Weill Cornell meet calculated need with scholarships, and 71% of Washington University’s entering class of 2025 had full tuition funding.
• Patient contact can begin in the first week or month, but the main clerkship year starts as early as year two at Duke and as late as year three at UC San Diego and Northwestern.
• Nearly every school requires a scholarly project, thesis, manuscript, concentration or research block, while residence is especially important at the University of Washington, UT Southwestern and UNC.

The Top 20 Medical Schools Ranked by NIH Funding

These are the 20 U.S. medical schools that received the most research funding from the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2025, listed largest first using the amounts NIH publishes for each organization it lists as a school of medicine. The order is IMA’s because NIH publishes the amounts as award data, not as its own institutional ranking. Research funding measures the scale of a school’s research activity, not the quality of its teaching or how well it will suit you. The profiles below address those practical distinctions.

The table uses the National Institutes of Health Awards by Location and Organization report for organizations listed as schools of medicine in fiscal year 2025.

Read each row as the amount NIH awarded to the organization it names, which at some universities includes the medical school’s parent institution. NIH notes that university funding can be aggregated across schools and departments in ways that alter the order, while figures for a completed fiscal year are frozen. Positions near the cutoff are especially close: the organization in twenty-first place received only $19,394 less than UT Southwestern in twentieth. Funding does not show how difficult admission is, so use IMA’s guides to medical school acceptance rates and the GPA and MCAT figures medical schools publish when assessing your academic range.

Research Funding as a Measure of a Medical School

A large NIH portfolio can put you near funded laboratories, active investigators and potential mentors. That is especially relevant here because most of these schools make scholarly work part of the MD rather than an optional activity. Funding alone does not tell you how well faculty teach, how large the class is, what attendance costs or whether you will like the location.

For national context, AAMC FACTS Table A-16 reports that the 23,440 students who matriculated at U.S. MD-granting schools in 2025-2026 had a mean total MCAT score of 512.1 and a mean total GPA of 3.81. You can use an MCAT score calculator to estimate a practice result, then compare it with IMA’s explanation of what counts as a good MCAT score. The AAMC says it is a myth that one score makes you competitive because admissions officers consider scores alongside transcripts, experiences and personal attributes.

1. UCSF School of Medicine

UCSF’s Bridges Curriculum puts students into health systems work at the beginning of its 18-month Foundations 1 phase. Through the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship, students examine population health, healthcare effectiveness and how patients move through complex systems from the start. Foundations 2 provides 14 months of core clerkships. A final phase of about 14 months includes Deep Explore, a 30-week block for the required scholarly project.

This design suits applicants who want systems improvement and underserved care built into the degree. PISCES offers 16 students a longitudinal alternative to block clerkships, while Model ZSFG is based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and its safety-net system. PRIME-US is a five-year track for students interested in urban underserved populations, with 11 UCSF seats each year. Residence is a meaningful consideration at this public school: the fall 2025 admissions data show that 71% of entering medical students were Californians. That does not exclude applicants from elsewhere, but it gives out-of-state applicants useful context before investing in an application.

2. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Financial support is an immediate reason to consider Washington University. Of the 123 students in its entering class of 2025, 77% held merit or need-based scholarships and 71% had full tuition funding. The school also reports mean educational debt of $110,975 among its indebted 2025 MD graduates. Its financial support figures make this school particularly relevant if debt carries as much weight as curriculum in your decision, while IMA’s guide to schools that cover medical school tuition explains how universal and selective awards differ.

The Gateway Curriculum has three phases across four calendar years. Seven Foundational Science Modules and three three-week clinical immersions come before six eight-week clerkships. Students later complete two four-week Keystone Integrated Science Courses, returning to underlying science after working on the wards. EXPLORE begins in Phase 1 and continues throughout medical school through four academic pathways. Clinical sites include Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. This structure suits you if you want clinical previews before clerkships, a deliberate return to science afterward and unusually broad scholarship support without assuming that every admitted student receives the same package.

3. Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Penn’s preclinical Core 1 ends in December of year two, and required clerkships begin the following January. Those clerkships run as four 12-week blocks, moving students into sustained clinical work earlier than a traditional two-full-year preclinical sequence. The Core 1 curriculum also contains three semesters of ultrasound instruction covering image acquisition, interpretation and use in patient care. Five major teaching hospitals are within walking distance, including the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Later, students complete a faculty-guided Scholarly Pursuit of at least 12 weeks through a three-month project, a year-long project or a second degree. Core 3 provides 24 weeks of open time for research, concentrations and other individualized work. This combination suits applicants seeking early clinical immersion without a tightly prescribed final phase. IMA’s guide to applying to Perelman can help you evaluate that fit. Penn says more than half of each class remains beyond four years for additional opportunities. Its financial aid overview reports approximately 35 full-tuition scholarships annually, compared with 154 students in the 2026-2027 entering class.

4. Yale School of Medicine

The Yale System creates an academic environment without grades during the first 18 months or class ranking at any point. Pre-clerkship examinations are taken anonymously, so students are not competing for a numerical position. The Yale System may appeal to you if you learn best through independent study and collaboration. Every student also conducts original research and writes an MD thesis, a requirement with roots dating to 1839.

Students may begin clerkships in January of year two and complete four required 12-week integrated blocks. Yale offers more than 100 clinical electives and sub-internships, with Yale New Haven Hospital serving as its teaching hospital. The Extended Study option adds a fifth year for research, coursework or clinical experiences without additional MD tuition charged by the medical school, and Yale says about half of students have used it in recent years. Before applying, use IMA’s guide to Yale medical school admission to consider whether that independence matches how you work. The Class of 2029 profile reports 104 students drawn from 6,206 applicants.

5. Stanford University School of Medicine

Stanford combines flexibility with a firm research spine. Clinical training begins in the first year through Early Clinical Engagement. Students may complete the pre-clerkship curriculum in two years or apply for a selective three-year route that creates time for longitudinal scholarship, independent research or dual degrees. The Discovery Curriculum therefore gives research-oriented students more control over the pace of their early training, although most students initially follow the two-year route.

The Scholarly Concentration is a graduation requirement, and Stanford will not confer the MD until it is certified complete. It offers 18 areas of study, divided into eight foundation and 10 application areas, while MedScholars has funded student research since 1980. Required clerkships include Stanford University Hospital, community clinics, Stanford Children’s Hospital and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. This structure suits applicants who want scholarship or a dual degree to become central to their medical identity. IMA’s guide to applying to Stanford Medicine provides additional admissions context. A typical class has about 90 students, and the school’s financial aid policy awards institutional scholarships and loans by need only, with no merit scholarships.

6. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

The cost of Johns Hopkins changed in fall 2024. Students from families earning less than $175,000 can receive aid covering tuition, living expenses and fees, while those from families earning less than $300,000 can receive tuition coverage. Following a $1 billion Bloomberg Philanthropies gift, the university said nearly two-thirds of current and entering medical students immediately qualified for one form of coverage. The tuition and financial aid policy makes family income central to estimating your cost.

The Genes to Society curriculum frames health and disease through adaptation to the environment, genetic variation and risk. Horizontal Strands connect scientific, clinical and social themes across four years. First-year students spend half a day each week in the Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship, and core clerkships begin in January of year two. A Scholarly Concentration project is required, while every student joins a College with a continuing advisor. A Primary Care Leadership Track is also available. This school may suit you if you want a defined intellectual framework, early patient contact and more predictable income-based aid. IMA’s Johns Hopkins application guide can help you assess that fit alongside the Genes to Society curriculum.

7. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Curriculum requires every student to complete a longitudinal research project and a community engagement experience. Its Longitudinal Alliance Program adds continuity by having students build relationships over several years with patients who have chronic illnesses. The curriculum begins with 1.5 years of Foundations, starting with Keystone Fundamentals, before an early transition into clerkships at affiliates that include UPMC.

The Longitudinal Research Project is not finished until a manuscript-form final report is approved for graduation. Streams provide concentration options alongside the regular curriculum, while an accelerated path allows qualifying students to complete medical school in three years and become eligible for a UPMC primary care residency. Pittsburgh suits applicants who want community work, a required research record and access to a large clinical network. Pittsburgh describes its clinical partner UPMC as a system of 95,000 employees and more than 6,400 affiliated physicians. The Class of 2029 enrolled 151 students, 32% of them Pennsylvania residents.

8. Duke University School of Medicine

Duke’s calendar is fundamentally different from a conventional two-plus-two curriculum. Students complete core basic sciences in year one, core clerkships in year two and an entire third year of scholarly investigation before taking electives in year four. Duke says this condenses traditionally structured medical training into three years so students have protected time for independent interests. The Patient FIRST curriculum consequently asks you to enter full clerkships only one year after starting.

The third year is organized into 16 study programs, and about 40% of Duke medical students graduate with two degrees. During year two, the 12-week PIONEER course adds weekly longitudinal clinics across several specialties. A four-year Primary Care Leadership Track combines community initiatives, research and leadership training, while clinical education occurs across Duke Health’s four hospitals. Duke may suit you if you already know you want a research or second-degree year and feel ready for a fast move into clinical responsibility. If you prefer more foundational science before clerkships, that speed deserves careful thought. IMA’s guide to Duke medical school admission can help you weigh the fit before applying.

9. University of Michigan Medical School

Michigan’s four Branches follow two foundational Trunk phases and shape the remainder of each student’s education around career interests. A Capstone for Impact project is required for graduation. Clinical exposure begins considerably earlier: Shadowing Interprofessional Sessions introduce students to team-based care within the first month. That timing may help you connect foundational science with the roles different clinicians play.

M-Home gives each student a learning community and continuing mentoring system. Seven Paths of Excellence offer additional focus in areas including health policy, medical humanities, healthcare innovation and scientific discovery. Second-year core clerkships use a criterion-referenced honors, high pass, pass and fail scale rather than grading students against classmates. Training starts at the medical center beside the school, which records more than 48,000 inpatient discharges and 2.9 million outpatient visits annually, then extends into community hospitals. Michigan suits applicants who want early clinical exposure followed by meaningful control over their later pathway. Its 2025 entering class profile reports 168 students selected from 10,265 applicants.

10. Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia offers need-based aid without loans. Its Vagelos Scholarship Program meets 100% of demonstrated financial need with scholarships for qualifying students, and the aid package used to meet that need contains no loans. This is not a universal tuition award, but it can substantially change cost for students who qualify.

The curriculum uses three segments rather than four year labels: an 18-month Fundamentals phase, a 12-month Major Clinical Year and a 14-month Differentiation and Integration phase combining electives with a required scholarly project for most MD students. Most clinical training centers on NewYork-Presbyterian. The Columbia-Bassett Program instead moves students to Cooperstown after Fundamentals, where they complete most major clerkships and follow their own patient panel for a year. That creates a meaningful choice between a large urban academic center and longitudinal rural care. Columbia may suit you if either setting supports your goals, and IMA’s guide to applying to Columbia medical school can help you frame that fit. The Class of 2030 includes 140 new students selected from 7,591 applicants.

11. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

FlexMed offers early assurance to college sophomores from any academic field and exempts accepted students from the MCAT. That gives undergraduates more freedom in course selection, but it is binding: taking the MCAT or applying to another medical school revokes the acceptance. Review the FlexMed pathway and IMA’s Mount Sinai admissions guide before treating early assurance as an easier route.

ASCEND has a 17-month pre-clerkship phase, a 13-month clerkship phase beginning with acute and emergent care and a final phase with a two-month Chronic Care clerkship and faculty-mentored scholarship. Nearly one-third of each class chooses a full scholarly year. The Longitudinal Clinical Experience pairs two students with one patient and a supervising physician early in training. Students also run a free primary care clinic for uninsured East Harlem residents, while Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens is a major public teaching affiliate. The Enhanced Scholarship Initiative caps four-year debt at $75,000 for students with no expected family contribution. Mount Sinai suits applicants seeking patient continuity, scholarship and public-hospital experience in New York City.

12. NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Every enrolled NYU Grossman MD student receives a full-tuition scholarship regardless of merit or financial need. Introduced in fall 2018, the award requires no FAFSA. The financial aid policy covers tuition, not every living expense, so you still need a plan for housing and other attendance costs.

The C21 curriculum begins the clerkship year in August of year two, which NYU describes as months earlier than at most other medical schools. Four 10-week rotation blocks each include four weeks of elective time for career exploration. The accelerated three-year MD, launched in 2013, can provide early conditional acceptance into one of 21 NYU Langone residency programs. Students train at NYU Langone sites and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, combining academic and public-hospital settings. This may suit you if you want no tuition bill and already have enough specialty direction to consider a faster route into residency. IMA’s NYU medical school application guide can help you assess that decision. NYU Grossman reports 425 medical students enrolled, making it relatively small among the research-intensive programs here.

13. UC San Diego School of Medicine

UC San Diego uses a conventional two-year pre-clerkship period, but its longitudinal courses distinguish that opening. Practice of Medicine meets every other week across both years to develop history-taking and physical examination skills. Equity in Systems Science meets twice weekly to address healthcare delivery, teamwork across professions and quality improvement. The core curriculum then moves into year-three clerkships at UC San Diego Health, Rady Children’s Hospital, Scripps Health and Veterans Administration sites, plus nine weeks of selectives chosen from more than 60 options.

Students generally complete an Elective Concentration in one of five areas, followed by a Capstone Project and two four-week capstone blocks, although approved exemptions are possible. PRIME Health Equity is a five-year MD and master’s program, while the student-run free clinic operates at four sites. UC San Diego suits applicants who want a recognizable two-plus-two calendar with systems and equity education built into the pre-clerkship years. Residence remains important: the incoming class of 2025 had 140 students from 10,400 applicants, and 74% were California residents. Students who are not residents may also owe Nonresident Supplemental Tuition.

14. David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

UCLA’s HEALS curriculum replaces a traditional two-years-of-science, two-years-of-clinics model with three phases. Early patient experiences run throughout Phase 1, and basic science is taught alongside clinical practice. Phase 2 is a year of clinical rotations with eight required clerkships across affiliate hospitals, community clinics and practices throughout Southern California. The HEALS curriculum may appeal to you if early patient care helps you understand the science.

Phase 3 includes Discovery, a mandatory faculty-mentored scholarly experience with eight areas of concentration. PRIME-LA combines the MD with a master’s degree for students interested in community-focused leadership. UCLA suits applicants who want early clinical participation, protected scholarship and a broad Southern California training region. IMA’s guide to applying to UCLA medical school provides further context. Financially, the Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship covers full tuition for selected students and adds a one-time $5,000 research stipend, with every applicant considered automatically. It is not universal. UCLA’s 2026-2027 budgets also add $12,245 in Nonresident Supplemental Tuition for students who are not California residents.

15. Emory University School of Medicine

Emory combines early patient contact with a defined research block. After Week on the Wards, students begin seeing outpatients in the early months, spending one afternoon every other week in clinic for 12 months. The 18-month Foundations phase is pass/fail and includes a required Community Learning and Social Medicine course with a year alongside a community partner. The four-phase curriculum then moves into 12 months of rotations across Atlanta, including Grady Memorial Hospital, Emory University Hospital, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Atlanta VA.

Discovery provides five months of full-time, hypothesis-driven research. Students write a final paper in manuscript form and present their work before entering the nine-month Translation phase, which concludes with a month-long Capstone. This structure suits you if you want major public-hospital experience and protected research without adding a year. IMA’s Emory medical school admissions guide can help you evaluate that fit. Financially, six Woodruff Fellowships cover full tuition and a stipend for four years. Emory awards nearly 70 scholarships overall, nearly 20 based on merit, with accepted students automatically considered. Emory’s fall 2026 first-year class has 140 students, and the school received 13,909 applications.

16. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Northwestern’s Education-Centered Medical Home builds patient continuity into all four years. Teams with four students from each class care for high-risk primary care patients with the same preceptor and peers. Students also train in Chicago hospitals and community clinics from the first week. The four-year clinic model suits applicants who want to follow patients over time rather than meet continuity care only during a short rotation.

Phase 1 covers 20 months and 14 organ-system modules, with week-long Synthesis and Application Modules between them. Phase 2 contains third-year core clerkships. Science in Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Professional Development and Health and Society run through the curriculum. Research is required: every student completes an Area of Scholarly Concentration, starting with a four-week summer session after year one, and must submit a first-author manuscript or thesis by January of year four. Clinical sites include Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Lurie Children’s Hospital, the Jesse Brown VA and Stroger Hospital. IMA’s Northwestern medical school application guide offers further context. Mean education debt for the Class of 2024 was $200,335, including prior education debt.

17. University of North Carolina School of Medicine

UNC turns the state into its clinical classroom. After an 18-month Foundation Phase, students complete the 12-month Application Phase at one of six locations: Asheville, Central, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh or Wilmington. UNC says about half its clinical education occurs at Area Health Education Center sites across North Carolina. The TEC 2.0 curriculum, launched in August 2023, also includes clinical weeks and a Patient Centered Care course meeting three hours weekly throughout Foundations.

The Individualization Phase requires two four-week acting internships, a four-week critical care selective and a longitudinal Science of Medicine course following research from basic discovery through implementation. UNC is particularly relevant to North Carolina residents seeking statewide training and resident tuition. The school gives preference to state residents, with nonresidents representing approximately 15% to 18% of matriculants. UNC lists 2026-2027 tuition and fees of $35,094 for residents and $63,419 for nonresidents. All Application Phase locations require a car, and students at regional campuses arrange their own housing. Around 230 students matriculate annually, making UNC one of the larger schools on this list.

18. University of Washington School of Medicine

Through its WWAMI program, the University of Washington trains medical students for five states: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Students spend the 18-month Foundations phase in their home state at sites in Anchorage, Bozeman, Laramie, Moscow, Seattle or Spokane, then travel across the region for urban and rural clerkships. The WWAMI program has more than 150 clinical sites and 280 students in each first-year class, giving the school a geographic model unlike any other program here.

The curriculum consists of Foundations, a 12-month Patient Care phase and a 15-month Explore and Focus phase. The school describes clinical training from day one, with Foundations of Clinical Medicine developing skills through the Primary Care Practicum. Students enter the clinical phases in spring of year two. Foundations also includes a summer Independent Investigative Inquiry course and final project, while 11 pathways organize work around specific interests. This program particularly suits applicants from the five WWAMI states who want rural and community-based training. More than 95% of acceptances go to WWAMI applicants. Out-of-region applicants need ties to a WWAMI state plus a disadvantaged background or demonstrated commitment to underserved populations. Incoming students are automatically considered for renewable need-based school scholarships.

19. Weill Cornell Medicine

Weill Cornell meets the full calculated financial need of MD students through a scholarship covering the difference between attendance cost and the family’s expected contribution. Its need-based aid policy can provide cost certainty, but it is not universal free tuition and aid is available only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

Phase 1 extends from the fall of year one through the fall of year two. Medical interviewing and patient interaction begin in the first course, with problem-based learning, clinical preceptorships and patient presentations continuing before the transition to clerkships. Phase 3 combines Scholarship and Advanced Clinical Rotations. The required Areas of Concentration program lets students explore fields during their first 18 months, then gives them six months of dedicated time for a mentored scholarly project beginning in the second half of year three. A final written report is required. Clinical training centers on NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, a Level I adult trauma center with more than 850 beds, with additional sites in Queens and Brooklyn. This suits applicants seeking need-based cost certainty and a long scholarly block in New York City. IMA’s Weill Cornell admissions guide and the MD curriculum can help you assess that fit.

20. UT Southwestern Medical School

Cost and public-hospital training distinguish UT Southwestern. Its cost page lists estimated first-year tuition and fees of $23,023 for Texas residents in 2023-2024. Clinical sites include William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Parkland Memorial Hospital, an 862-bed facility and Dallas County’s only public hospital. The cost and financial aid page says the FAFSA is the only aid application required, with no parental data or supplemental application.

An 18-month pass/fail pre-clerkship phase includes early work with standardized and hospitalized patients. Academic Colleges place groups of about six students with a faculty mentor each week before clerkships and monthly afterward. Clerkships begin in the second semester of year two, with 48 required weeks inside an 18-month period that leaves room for research or early electives. Every student completes a 12-week scholarly activity in one of six tracks and produces a product for evaluation. The curriculum suits Texas residents who want research-intensive education at public-school tuition. State law limits non-Texas residents to 10% of the class, and the standard class size is 239, so residency should be one of the first factors an out-of-state applicant considers.

How to Choose Among These 20 Medical Schools

AAMC guidance on deciding where to apply advises looking past any single characteristic, because medical schools differ in mission, location, size and teaching style. It reports that applicants now apply to 16 schools on average through AMCAS, and recommends applying only where you would seriously consider attending. It also names your prehealth advisor as the person best placed to talk your options through. A position on a list is one input among several, and IMA’s article on how much a ranking should weigh in your choice of medical school sets out the others. The questions below are the ones worth taking into that conversation.

Decide When You Want Patient Contact

Early exposure and full rotations are two different decisions. Northwestern, Michigan, Emory, Stanford, Mount Sinai, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, UCSF and the University of Washington all put students in front of patients in the first weeks, months or phase, in the forms their profiles describe. When core rotations start is a separate question. At most of these schools they begin somewhere in the second year, Duke gets there after a single condensed science year, and UC San Diego and Northwestern hold them until the third. Ask yourself whether seeing patients early will anchor the science for you, or whether you would rather have the science settled first.

Choose a Research Commitment You Will Value

Almost every school here expects scholarly work, but the size of the commitment is not the same. At one end are defined projects of a few months, as at Penn and UT Southwestern. In the middle are protected blocks of several months, as at Emory and Weill Cornell. At the far end are a thesis at Yale, a concentration that gates the degree at Stanford, a manuscript or thesis at Northwestern and Pittsburgh and a full protected year at Duke. Pick a requirement you would still value if your specialty interest changed in the third year, because it is not something you can opt out of later.

Compare Your Likely Cost Rather Than the Headline

Five of the twenty have changed what a student actually pays, and they did it in different ways: a universal tuition award at NYU Grossman, family income thresholds at Johns Hopkins, need met without loans at Columbia, full calculated need met by scholarship at Weill Cornell and broad scholarship funding for an entering class at Washington University. UCLA and Emory give full-tuition awards to a small number of selected students. At the public schools the resident rate is the draw, and the nonresident rate can be far higher, as the UNC figures show. None of that tells you your own number. Work out what each school would cost you, housing and living costs included, before you compare offers.

Account for State and Regional Preference

Residence can decide whether a public school belongs on your list at all. UT Southwestern, the University of Washington and UNC give most of their seats to state or regional residents, by law, by program design or by stated preference, and Californians fill most of the entering classes at UCSF and UC San Diego. The shares are in each profile. They do not make an application from elsewhere impossible, but they should change how many of these schools you add and how you balance the rest of your list.

Picture Where You Would Train

The clinical setting decides which patients and which health system you learn on. Public and safety-net hospitals feature heavily at UCSF, Mount Sinai, NYU Grossman, Emory and UT Southwestern. The University of Washington and UNC spread training across a multistate region or a whole state, Columbia offers a rural year in Cooperstown and Pittsburgh puts you inside a very large regional system. Think about where you are willing to live for four years, how much travel between sites is workable and whether you want one central academic hospital or several community sites.

Build a Balanced Application List

Start with the schools where curriculum, research commitment, residence rules, location and likely cost make sense together, then look honestly at your own academic record. IMA’s guide to how medical schools weigh MCAT and GPA together helps you read those two numbers as a pair rather than one at a time. Keep only the schools you would actually attend, and drop any famous name you cannot give a reason for.

Build a List You Can Actually Apply To

The strongest choice is not simply the highest position in the table. It is the school whose clinical calendar, research expectations, financial plan, residence rules and training sites support the physician you are trying to become. Mark the programs where you can give a specific reason for applying, then remove any school you would not attend if it became your only offer.

Next, compare that fit with the strength and range of your application. If your academic numbers sit below those commonly associated with highly research-funded programs, broaden your options rather than abandoning every ambitious choice. IMA’s guide to medical schools that consider lower MCAT scores can help you add realistic possibilities and build a list with more than one level of academic risk.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are the Top 20 Medical Schools in the US?

The top 20 on this research-funding measure are UCSF, Washington University in St. Louis, Penn, Yale, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Pittsburgh, Duke, Michigan, Columbia, Mount Sinai, NYU Grossman, UC San Diego, UCLA, Emory, Northwestern, UNC, the University of Washington, Weill Cornell and UT Southwestern, in that order. The list uses NIH funding received in fiscal year 2025. Use it to identify research-intensive schools, then compare curricula, costs, residence rules and clinical settings.

What Is the Number 1 Medical School in the US?

UCSF is number one on this measure. In fiscal year 2025, the National Institutes of Health awarded UCSF $724,156,263 across 1,265 awards, the largest total among organizations NIH lists as schools of medicine. A ranking based on another measure can place a different school first.

How Are Medical Schools Ranked?

Medical schools can be ranked using any clearly defined comparative measure. This list uses one public federal figure: NIH funding in fiscal year 2025 for organizations NIH categorizes as schools of medicine, ordered from largest to smallest. NIH notes that university funding can be aggregated across schools and departments in ways that change the order. Before using any ranking, check exactly what it measures and whether that measure relates to your priorities.

Do Medical School Rankings Matter?

Yes, when the measure matches what you want to compare. Research funding is a sound way to identify research-intensive schools, but curriculum, cost, residence rules and location matter more once you are deciding where to apply. The AAMC notes that schools differ in mission, location, size and teaching style. Treat a position on any list as a starting point, then test each school against the things you would live with for four years.

Why Is Harvard Medical School Not in the Top 20?

Harvard is outside this top 20 because the list counts NIH funding assigned directly to organizations categorized as schools of medicine. The NIH school-of-medicine report assigns Harvard Medical School about $139 million in fiscal year 2025. Harvard says most clinical training for its medical students happens across 18 affiliated institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. NIH counts those hospitals separately as independent organizations, so their awards are not included in Harvard Medical School’s row.

Which Top Medical Schools Have Free Tuition or No-Loan Financial Aid?

NYU Grossman gives every enrolled MD student a full-tuition scholarship. Johns Hopkins covers tuition below a $300,000 family-income threshold and full attendance cost below $175,000. Columbia meets demonstrated need for qualifying students with scholarships and no loans, while Weill Cornell meets full calculated need after the expected family contribution. Washington University reported full tuition funding for 71% of its entering class of 2025. UCLA and Emory also offer full-tuition awards to selected students, but those awards are not universal.

Which of These Medical Schools Require Research?

Most require a scholarly product or research experience. Yale requires an MD thesis, Stanford a certified Scholarly Concentration, Duke a third year of scholarly investigation, Pittsburgh a manuscript-form report, Northwestern a first-author manuscript submission or thesis, Emory a five-month Discovery project, Weill Cornell six months of scholarship and UT Southwestern 12 weeks. Penn, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Michigan, UCSF, UCLA and UC San Diego require projects, concentrations or capstones. The University of Washington requires an Independent Investigative Inquiry project. Mount Sinai includes faculty-mentored scholarly work, while UNC requires a longitudinal Science of Medicine course that follows research from the laboratory to implementation.

What MCAT Score and GPA Do Top Medical Schools Expect?

No single MCAT score or GPA guarantees admission. For national context, AAMC data put the mean total MCAT score at 512.1 and the mean total GPA at 3.81 for the 23,440 students who entered U.S. MD-granting schools in 2025-2026. Those are national means, not minimums for these 20 schools. The AAMC says admissions officers consider scores alongside transcripts, experiences, attributes and other application evidence.