There are many reasons why plenty of aspiring doctors include Arizona medical schools on their list. Among them are the state’s warm climate and low cost of living, not to mention the fact that one of the best medical schools in the U.S., the world-renowned Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, has a campus there.

Out of the five medical schools in Arizona, two are osteopathic and three are allopathic.

Applicants face tough competition when vying for a spot in their top choice program’s incoming class. Our goals are to help you understand the standards you’ll need to meet as an Arizona medical school applicant and to provide helpful strategies so you can craft an outstanding application.

List of medical schools in Arizona: 2021 rankings & admissions statistics

When applying to Arizona medical schools, it’s prudent learn more about the competition, whether you’re an Arizona resident or out-of-state applicant. We’ve listed the most important information in the table below so you can understand what you’re up against.

While compiling this information, we observed the following trends:

• Three Arizona medical schools appear in the 2022 U.S. News Best Medical Schools (Research) ranking. One is in the top 15.
• Tuition at Arizona’s public medical schools is significantly lower for in-state students.
• In-state applicants tend to matriculate at higher rates to Arizona’s public medical schools.

Numbers in parentheses reflect each medical school’s national ranking, whereas numbers outside parentheses reflect each Arizona medical school’s relative rank. Relative rankings help us answer the question, “Which are the ‘best’ medicals schools in Arizona?”

Arizona Medical Schools	US News Ranking	Location	Degree	Year Est.	Annual Tuition & Fees	Avg. GPA	Avg. MCAT	Interview Rate	First-Year Class Size
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine	1 (11)	Scottsdale/Phoenix	MD	2017	$58,900 IS $58,900 OOS	3.94	520	NA	51
University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson*	2 (70)	Tucson	MD	1967	$34,914 IS $55,514 OOS	3.79	510	30.5% IS 2.8% OOS	117 (76% IS)
Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine	3 (93–123)	Glendale	DO	1964	$71,875 IS $71,875 OOS	3.48	506	NA	254 (37% IS)
A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine	4 (UR)	Mesa	DO	2006	$59,802 IS $59,802 OOS	3.45	505	NA	161 (9.3% IS)
University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix*	4 (UR)	Phoenix	MD	2006	$34,380 IS $54,980 OOS	3.84	515	23.8% IS 4.3% OOS	100 (55% IS)

*Public medical schools in Arizona | UR: Unranked | IS: In-state | OOS: Out-of-state | NA: Not available

—-

Part 3: Arizona medical school admissions strategies

Strategy 1: Take a data-driven approach when determining which Arizona medical schools to apply to

When developing your medical school list, you’ll want to pay close attention to the average GPA and MCAT scores of each Arizona medical school. There is significant variability with regard to stats, so you’ll want to make sure your numbers fall within a few points of the listed averages before adding them to your list.

Students often add reach schools to their lists, thinking it won’t hurt to apply. However, crafting outstanding secondary essays takes time, and if you spend time on applications to schools where your odds are low, you’ll be doing so at the expense of applications to schools where you actually have a strong change of admission.

For example, if you have a 3.8 GPA and a 513 MCAT score, you would be an excellent candidate for either of the University of Arizona schools. However, unless you have extraordinary extracurricular accomplishments such as multiple publications, you would be highly unlikely to gain admission to the Mayo Clinic.

Instead, focus on maximizing your odds at schools where you have a strong change of acceptance.

Strategy 2: Review each Arizona medical school’s mission and demonstrate fit in essays and interviews

Like all medical schools, each individual Arizona medical school boasts their unique strengths such as research innovation or a commitment to underserved populations.

For example, the University of Arizona Tucson website states, “Since our founding, the UA College of Medicine has focused on medical care in underserved populations, including border communities, Native American communities and less-developed countries.”

If your extracurricular experiences align closely with their focus, be sure to mention this in secondary applications and during interviews! This is what is means to “demonstrate fit” with a school.