Overall methodology

For the list, U.S. News surveyed medical and osteopathic schools during fall 2024 and early 2025. Ultimately, there were 105 medical and osteopathic schools with eligible data for the research rankings and 99 schools for the primary care rankings. No medical schools were assessed solely on data reported in previous editions of U.S. News's rankings and any medical schools that opted to not submit data to U.S. News were unranked.

U.S. News sorted the best medical schools into four tiers:

• Tier 1, which included schools with overall scores of 85–99
• Tier 2, which included schools with overall scores of 50–84
• Tier 3, which included schools with overall scores of 15–49
• Tier 4, which included schools with overall scores of 1–14

Methodology for research ratings

For the research ratings, U.S. News assessed each school's performance based on the following indicators:

• Research activity, which includes total federal research activity, total federal research activity per faculty member, total NIH grants at the school and its affiliated hospitals, and average NIH research grants per faculty. This indicator makes up 60% of a school's research score.
• Student selectivity, which includes median MCAT score, median undergraduate GPA, and acceptance rate. This indicator makes up 20% of a school's score.
• Faculty resources, which includes the ratio of full-time faculty to full-time students in 2024. This indicator makes up 20% of a school's score.

Tier 1 medical schools for research

According to U.S. News, the tier 1 medical schools for research are:

• Baylor College of Medicine
• Case Western Reserve University
• Emory University
• Hofstra University/Northwell Health
• Mayo Clinic School of Medicine
• Ohio State University
• University of California – Los Angeles
• University of California – San Diego
• University of California – San Francisco
• University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Rochester
• University of South Florida
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
• Vanderbilt University
• Yale University

Tier 1 medical schools for primary care

According to U.S. News, the tier 1 medical schools for primary care are:

• East Carolina University
• East Tennessee State University
• Saint Louis University
• Texas A&M University
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
• UMass Chan Medical School
• University of Arizona – Tucson
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• University of California – Davis
• University of California – San Francisco
• University of Hawaii – Manoa
• University of Kansas Medical Center
• University of Minnesota
• University of New Mexico
• University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
• Western University of Health Sciences