Is Nyu A Good Medical School

Loser: NYU Grossman School of Medicine

How to Beat 8,000 Applicants and get into NYU Medical School (2023-2024)

Introduction – How to get into NYU Medical School

With free tuition, NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City has become one of the most competitive medical schools in the United States with an acceptance rate of 2.1%. In fact, only 8.7% of applicants even receive interview invitations at NYU. In our experience, only top applicants receive interviews and those who are accepted excel in every way with regards to academics, scholarly and extracurricular experiences, and interpersonal skills and attributes. What are NYU Langone medical school’s admissions requirements? NYU has always been a very competitive and popular medical school and that popularity increased when the school started offering full tuition scholarships in 2018 as announced by the board of trustees. In this comprehensive guide we will outline how to increase your chances of getting in to NYU medical school by explaining the different aspects of your background, candidacy, and application that will factor in to NYU’s interview and admissions decision. Keep in mind that NYU also has a medical school on Long Island (NYU Long Island School of Medicine) that is focused on educating primary care physicians. We will not be discussing NYU Long Island in this article. There are many pieces that contribute to a successful NYU medical school application, but, you want to focus on five items to evaluate your competitiveness:

GPA Requirements
MCAT Requirements
Experience Requirements
Application and Secondary Essay Requirements

Let’s discuss each of these items in greater detail.

NYU Admissions:

We’re proud that our medical students are well-rounded and versed in topics beyond the humanities and sciences.

NYU Medical School Average GPA

NYU is one of the most competitive medical schools in the country, and is ranked number 2 in the country by U.S. News for research. So, as you can imagine, the GPA required to be seriously considered for medical school admission is quite high.

Average GPAs for students accepted to NYU:
NYU Medical School GPA: 3.96 (range 3.62 – 4.0)
NYU Medical School BCPM GPA: 3.96

NYU will also expect you to demonstrate academic excellence through your coursework showing that you have tackled a challenging curriculum in college.

What are NYU medical school requirements?

NYU has moved towards competency-based admissions requirements which means applicants are expected to demonstrate mastery across certain disciplines.

Here are the courses NYU that NYU “recommends” to be competitive for admission:

Biology
Biochemistry
English
Math – college level
Genetics
Inorganic Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Physics
Psychology
Social Science

In addition to the courses listed, you should enroll in upper level science classes and show mastery of whatever discipline you major in. You do not need to major in a science. In fact, schools as prestigious as NYU hope to enroll a diverse group of students with a variety of intellectual interests and pursuits.

NYU Medical School Average MCAT Score

NYU students have also earned very high MCAT scores. The median MCAT for NYU medical school accepted students is 523 with a range of 516 – 527.

In our experience, students who have MCAT score less than 517-518 have a tough time earning interviews from NYU unless there is something exceptional about their background, experiences, and/or circumstances.

So how are you going to hit your target NYU MCAT score? Prepare with the links below:

NYU Website:

Range of MCAT Scores for NYU School of Medicine Matriculants

518-525

2021-2022 Admissions Cycle

NYU Medical School Experience Requirements

By reviewing what the vast majority of accepted students have participated in as premedical students, you can see what NYU values in an applicant’s experience profile.

Community Service/Volunteer Work

Since 92% of students accepted to NYU have community service experience, NYU clearly likes to see applicants who have committed their time to other communities and people. Ideally you want to pursue community service activities that are related to your established interests. We are seeing that medical schools, in general, are placing more value in social justice and advocacy efforts.

Physician Shadowing/Observation

To demonstrate an understanding of what it means to practice medicine, NYU likes applicants to have shadowing or observational clinical exposure. 89% of students have this experience.

Medical/Clinical Community Service/Volunteer

In combining the two categories above, 87% of students have community service experience that is medical or clinical in nature. This means that students have volunteered in a clinical setting such as hospice or a free clinic.

Research

A research-heavy school, it is not surprise that. A whopping 98% of NY medical students have some research experience. No one expects you to be an “expert” in every category above. In fact, a trend we are noticing is that medical schools, including NYU, are seeking applicants who have diverse experiences but show a “spike” of interest, or a particular passion in one specific area. What that area is doesn’t really matter, but, just as the field of medicine has a variety of specialists all who contribute something different, NYU is hoping to create a class of specialists who might have a niche in a certain area therefore being able to contribute to the overall diversity of the medical school class and community.

Medical/Clinical Paid Employment

Across the board, we are seeing that medical schools value applicants who have worked in a clinical setting. While we expect the percentage of students who have paid clinical work experience to increase every year, most recently 34% of medical school applicants accepted to NYU had this experience.

Summer Undergraduate Research Programs for Pre Med Students

Since research is so important to your medical school candidacy, start putting together a list of opportunities as soon as possible. The AAMC has a great list of summer research programs to get your search started. Visit their summer research page to find a local program.

NYU Medical School Personal Statement

You will not write a medical school personal statement for NYU, specifically. Instead, you will apply to NYU through a centralized application service called AMCAS. The personal statement you write for AMCAS will be sent to NYU and all other AMCAS medical schools you apply to. Here are some basics about the AMCAS personal statement:

The character limit for the AMCAS personal statement is 5,300 characters with spaces.
The AMCAS personal statement instructions are as follows:

NYU Medical School Work and Activities

NYU Grossman School of Medicine does not ask you to submit a CV or resume. Instead, NYU requires you to submit a centralized AMCAS application which requires you to write about your accomplishments in detail. These “work and activities entries” as they are called, are sent to NYU medical school as well as any other medical schools to which you apply through AMCAS.

Below are a few things you should know about the AMCAS work and activities .

AMCAS work and activities entries give you the chance to let medical schools know how much you’ve accomplished during your premed years .

This section of the AMCAS application offers the opportunity to write about up to 15 activity descriptions that are up to 700 characters in length
You can then select three of those activities as most meaningful activities which gives you an additional 1325 characters to elaborate on the activity.

We encourage you to use this space to your advantage, elaborating as much as possible about your roles, responsibilities, the insights you gained, as well as what you have learned from the experience. You should also write in detail about the impact or “difference” you have made through the experience.

NYU Medical School Application and Secondary Essay Requirements

With regards to letters of reference the NYU requirements are a minimum of two letters and maximum of eight with a committee preferred if your school offers one. We find that most successful NYU applicants have six letters of reference. NYU Medical School secondary application fee is $100 and the decline is November 15th. Below are the 2023/2024 NYU secondary essay prompts :

1. If applicable, please comment on significant fluctuations in your academic record which are not explained elsewhere on your application. (no limited provided)

2. If you have taken any time off from your studies, either during or after college, please describe what you have done during this time and your reasons for doing so. (no limit provided)

3. The Admissions Committee holistically evaluates a range of student qualities and life experiences that complement demonstrated academic excellence. What unique qualities do you possess that make you uniquely suited to become a physician or physician-scientist? How have your individual lived experiences shaped your core values and desire to be a future leader in our profession? (2500 characters)

4. Answer one of the three of the following (limit 2500 characters):

1. The most meaningful achievements are often non-academic in nature. Describe the personal accomplishment that makes you most proud. Why is this important to you?

2. Conflicts arise daily from differences in perspectives, priorities, worldviews and traditions. How do you define respect? Describe a situation in which you found it challenging to remain respectful while facing differences?

3. Describe a situation in which working with a colleague, family member or friend has been challenging. How did you resolve, if at all, the situation as a team and what did you gain from the experience that will benefit you as a future health care provider?

It wasn’t long ago that the U.S. News and World Report rankings were the agreed-upon arbiter of prestige and quality in medical schools. Sure, you might quibble with their results or their methodology, but at the end of the day we all begrudgingly conceded that only U.S. News could decide which schools were better than others.

But a lot has changed over the past 2 weeks.

Starting with Harvard, the majority of the top 20 medical schools per U.S. News have announced they’ll no longer contribute data to the rankings.

This mass exodus raises many questions about what this means for the schools that left, the schools that stayed, the longevity of the rankings, and the ecosystem of medical school admissions at large.

So, you know what that means. Yep, that’s right: It’s time to break it down, “Winners and Losers” style.

Winner: The Medical Ivy League

While all of the departing schools have released statements cataloguing their numerous (and legitimate) reasons for departing the U.S. News rankings, make no mistake, this was ultimately a strategic decision for each of them.

Maintaining a top position is difficult. It requires ongoing and careful attention to the ranking formula and strategic decisions about how to maximize performance in each dimension. For medical school deans, the whole process is expensive — and tiresome.

And what do the most prestigious medical schools have to gain by helping U.S. News rank them? Not much. If the average person already believes that, say, Stanford is a better medical school than the University of Pittsburgh, why provide data to U.S. News that could be used to change their minds?

So, one after another, the medical Ivies have decided that playing U.S. News‘ game isn’t worth it. They’re taking their ball — and their top 20 ranking — and going home.

Loser: NYU Grossman School of Medicine

No school has risen faster in the U.S. News “Best Medical Schools” rankings than NYU Grossman. NYU was a solid top-50 medical school just 15 years ago. Last year, it ranked #2 in the country.

NYU’s meteoric rise coincides with dramatic structural improvements fueled by a massive influx of cash, and I’ve talked to a couple of pundits who believe the school would have seized the #1 position next year even if the medical Ivies had continued to participate.

NYU Grossman may still seize the top spot — but their victory won’t be as sweet if the schools they wanted to beat claim they’re not playing anymore.

Loser: U.S. News and World Report

Quick question: When’s the last time you looked to U.S. News and World Report for news or reporting on anything other than rankings?

Yeah, I can’t remember, either.

U.S. News‘ transformation from the nation’s third-favorite weekly news magazine in the end days of print media to the kingmaker of academics is best chronicled by Malcolm Gladwell. But suffice to say, these days the entire U.S. News business is built around ranking one thing or another.

U.S. News has successfully monetized most everything around their rankings. If you’re an applicant and you want to see the full rankings, it’ll cost you $29.95. If you work for a school and want more detailed data for visualizations, historical trending, or benchmarking versus your peer institutions, that’ll cost you even more. Want to advertise to potential students in the U.S. News rankings? You better believe that’ll cost you. If you just want to use the U.S. News and World Report badge on your own marketing materials, you can do that too. (But it’ll cost you.)

The less attention people pay to their rankings, the more it hurts U.S. News‘ bottom line.

Winner: Ranking Entrepreneurs

Even if the U.S. News rankings disappeared entirely — which they won’t — they’ll just be replaced by another ranking system. We have an insatiable desire to rank things. The medical Ivies can withhold their data, but they can’t keep people from having an opinion — or trying to make a buck.

Of course, any startup will have to compete with the old boss because U.S. News isn’t going anywhere. They may lose some of their legitimacy, but they’ll just reconfigure their formula to exclusively use data acquired from public sources and carry on as usual.

(And don’t think for a minute that this didn’t occur to the medical Ivies leading the U.S. News exodus. To maintain legitimacy, whatever methodology U.S. News uses must yield something that approximates the rankings consumers expect. so all these schools will remain at the top of the list. Better yet, if they do slide a few places, now they have a ready defense: “U.S. News? Pah! We don’t even submit data to them anymore!”

Loser: Educational Consultants

Schools pay five- and six-figure fees to consultants to analyze the U.S. News algorithm and recommend strategies to maximize their ranking.

My guess is that these folks will pivot even harder into supporting Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation or improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) metrics.

Winner: Campbell’s Law

Whatever variables U.S. News — or their upstart competitors — use in their next-generation ranking methodology, I can tell you this much: some schools are going to chase it.

Campbell’s law states: “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.”

In this case, Campbell’s law isn’t just a winner — it’s friggin’ undefeated. We can only hope that any new metrics will lead to less pernicious chasing.

Loser: The MCAT

Historically, among the most impactful variables in the U.S. News ranking formula has been the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores of entering students.

On its face, this always struck me as a curious analytic decision. After all, what can scores on a test that students take before they enter medical school tell you about the quality of education that students receive once they’re enrolled?

In practice, U.S. News prioritized test scores because including the MCAT (and the infamous U.S. News reputation scores) allowed them to put a thumb on the scale and ensure the final rankings maintained face validity.

Regardless, the primacy of the MCAT in U.S. News stabilized the primacy of the MCAT in admissions. Now, schools are more free to interpret MCAT scores in a manner more consistent with their predictive ability.

Push: Honesty

It’s well known that schools sometimes get a little loosey-goosey with the data they submit to U.S. News.

But whether the depreciation of the medical school rankings will be a victory for honesty is unclear. Most of the departing schools have announced they’ll put detailed information for applicants on their own webpages. But whether those data will permit an apples-to-apples comparison or just enable more fudging has yet to be seen.

Winner: The U.S. News ‘Best Hospitals’ Rankings

Many institutions that dropped out of the U.S. News medical school rankings have been careful to note that they’re not dropping out of the “Best Hospitals” rankings. Several spokespersons try to draw a bright line between the school and the hospital rankings, arguing that the latter provides a valuable service to patients and families and uses more defensible methodology.

I, for one, am skeptical that the Best Hospitals tortured regression models provide any more meaningful insight than their educational rankings. Maybe the hospital administrators just have more stamina for metric chasing than their dean counterparts. More likely, the payoffs for winning the hospital rankings are simply higher. If you can shift even a few patients who need expensive surgeries or complex care (like transplant or oncology) to your “Best Hospital,” you can pay for a whole lot of metric-chasing.

Winner: The OGs

To whatever extent this moment in history will be remembered by future generations, it’ll likely be recalled that Harvard was the leader who broke medical schools out of the U.S. News rankings.

Sure, Harvard was the first domino to fall in this final cascade — but they’re far from the first school to conscientiously object to these rankings. In 2016, citing the perverse incentives and flawed methodology, the deans at Uniformed Services University pulled their school out of the rankings. Most osteopathic medical schools and historically Black college and university (HBCU)-affiliated medical schools — knowing that the deck was stacked against them — have also declined to return the U.S. News survey in recent years.

These OGs can celebrate being on the right side of history — even if history doesn’t remember their contributions.

Winner: Medical School Missions

Are medical schools really in one big competition with each other to be The Best? Or do schools serve different populations, meet different societal needs, and have different aspirations?

The primacy of the U.S. News rankings makes it harder for schools to pursue missions that aren’t captured by the metrics. Maybe now schools will have a little more breathing room to pursue goals in physician training that aren’t easily reduced to a single number. And maybe — just maybe — when they do, their graduates’ future patients will win too.

Bryan Carmody, MD, MPH, is a pediatric nephrologist and an opinionated commentator on medical education and training.