Women Continue to Make Gains in Medical School Enrollments

The Association of American Medical Colleges has released new data on diversity among medical school applicants and enrollees.

The total number of students applying to medical school in 2022 decreased by 11.6 percent after a surge in applicants in 2021 as the nation was emerging from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, 31,190 women applied to U.S. medical schools. Women make up 56.5 percent of all applicants. Women have been a majority of all medical school applicants since 2018. Since 2012, women applicants to U.S. medical schools are up by 49 percent.

About 43 percent of students who applied to medical school in 2022 were accepted. In 2022, 13,286 women were accepted to medical school. Thus, the acceptance rate for women applicants was 42.6 percent, compared to an acceptance rate of 44 percent for men.

The number of women first-year students at U.S. medical schools in 2022 increased slightly, to 12,630. Women made up 55.6 percent of all first-year students in U.S. medical schools. In 2017, women made up a majority of the entering classes at U.S. medical schools for the first time.

In 2022, there were 51,890 women students enrolled at U.S. medical schools. They made up 53.8 percent of all medical school students. In 2019, women made up a majority of all medical school enrollments for the first time.