Which Medical Schools Are in California?

The MD list comes from the LCME's directory of accredited programs, which shows 13 California programs. Twelve are fully accredited; Charles R. Drew University is accredited on provisional status, the stage before full accreditation for a newer program.

The in-state column is the share of each school's 2023-24 entering class who were California residents, from the AAMC's Table A-1. The MCAT^® column is the school-reported average for admitted or enrolled students, as tallied by MedEdits.

The AAMC's Table A-1 covers MD schools only, so the DO rows have no in-state figure from that source. The DO cities come from MedSchoolCoach's California list.

Two things stand out. The public UC schools take mostly Californians, from 58 percent at UCLA to 99 percent at UC Riverside. The private schools range much wider: Stanford's class was two-thirds out-of-state, while California University of Science and Medicine's was 98 percent Californian.

Use the MCAT^® column as a rough guide. The sources that publish these numbers don't match exactly: Shemmassian Consulting and MedSchoolCoach list figures within a few points of MedEdits for most schools, but not the same ones. For each school's current median MCAT^® and GPA, the source of record is the AAMC's MSAR, and the MSAR guide covers whether a subscription is worth it.

Princeton's health professions office pulled the 2024-25 numbers for California residents from the AAMC's data: about 6,700 Californians applied to MD schools, 18 percent started at a California MD school, and 58 percent (3,875 people) didn't start at any MD school that year. Here's how those three groups compare.

Where California's MD applicants ended up

Share of about 6,700 California residents who applied in 2024-25

Among Californians who did start at an MD school that year, more went out of state than stayed: about 24 percent of applicants against 18 percent.

The 2023-24 tables tell the same story. California's 13 MD schools enrolled 1,636 first-year students that fall, and by their in-state percentages about 1,209 of them were California residents. The AAMC's Table A-4 counts 2,899 California residents who started at an MD school anywhere that year. That leaves about 1,690, or 58 percent, who started outside California. (The 1,209 is an estimate: each school's class size times its in-state share, added up.)

The squeeze comes from seat count. The UCSF report puts California at 23 medical students (MD and DO) per 100,000 residents in 2023-24, against a mean of 41 across the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico.

Application volume shows the pressure. In 2023-24, UCLA received 13,064 applications for 175 seats, and Stanford received 8,837 for 89. Every UC campus received at least 6,000, per Table A-1.

For a California resident, that changes how you build a list:

• Apply broadly in California anyway. The UC schools fill most of their seats with Californians, so your residency helps there even when the odds look long.
• Plan on out-of-state schools. With most California matriculants leaving, a California-only list is a narrow bet. Princeton's advising office notes that public schools' state funding typically requires them to admit a set share of in-state residents, while plenty of private schools have no residency preference, so private schools carry most out-of-state lists. The easiest-to-get-into breakdown shows which schools accept the most applicants.
• Count the DO schools. Western, Touro and California Health Sciences post averages from 505 to 510. The MD vs DO guide covers how the two degrees compare in admissions and the residency match.
• Compare your score to the national pool. The average MCAT score breakdown shows the national averages for applicants and matriculants.

Cost varies by school. Kaiser Permanente waived tuition and fees for its first six entering classes, through the class that started in 2025, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The med school scholarships guide covers the other ways to bring tuition down.

To see where your MCAT^® score stands against these averages, look it up in the PurpleCAT MCAT score guide.

Last verified November 3, 2026, against the LCME's accredited program directory and the AAMC's 2023-24 FACTS tables. School averages change every cycle, so check each school's current numbers in the MSAR before you finalize a list.