Medical School Enrollment Breaks 100,000 Students

Medical school enrollment reached a historic milestone in 2025, surpassing 100,000 students for the frist time ever, according to new data from the association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Each year, the AAMC provides a detailed look at incoming medical students. They analyze characteristics like gender, race, ethnicity, where students went to college, MCAT scores, and undergraduate GPAs. This data offers a comprehensive picture of the future of the medical profession.

After a couple of years of decline, applications to U.S. medical schools are up. In 2025,54,699 people applied – a 5.3% increase from 2024.This surge is largely thanks to first-time applicants, who now make up 76.5% of the applicant pool. We saw an 8.4% jump in first-time applicants,while the number of re-applicants decreased by 3.6%.

medical schools are also expanding their class sizes. The incoming class of 2025 includes 23,440 students, the largest in history. This pushes the total number of medical students to an all-time high of 100,723.

“The growing number of applicants to medical school reflects the continued strong interest in medicine as a career,” said AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, in a press release. “Training the next generation of physicians has always been, and will remain, a core mission of academic medicine.”

Women Hold the Majority

As 2019, women have consistently made up more than half of medical school students, and that trend continues.

• Both men and women applied in greater numbers in 2025, but women represented 57.2% of all applicants – a slight increase from 56.8% the previous year.