How to Use MSAR to Build Your Medical School List

Choosing where to apply to medical school should involve much more than comparing rankings.

Your GPA and MCAT matter, but so do residency preferences, prerequisites, tuition, curriculum, mission, clinical opportunities, and whether a school regularly considers applicants with your background.

For students applying to MD programs, one of the most useful research tools is the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) database from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

The current MSAR includes information on 176 MD-granting, LCME-accredited medical schools in the United States and Canada. (AAMC MSAR)

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What Is MSAR?

MSAR is the AAMC's official medical school database.

It allows applicants to search, sort, compare, and research individual MD programs using data supplied by medical schools and information from AAMC sources such as AMCAS and the MCAT.

Depending on the school and subscription level, information can include:

• GPA and MCAT data
• Application deadlines
• Prerequisite coursework
• Tuition and financial aid
• Class size
• In-state and out-of-state admissions
• International applicant policies
• Curriculum
• Interview information
• Waitlist policies
• Clinical training
• Student demographics

The AAMC publishes a comprehensively updated edition each spring, typically around April.

MSAR Is for MD Schools

One important limitation is that MSAR focuses on MD-granting schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in the United States and Canada.

If you are considering osteopathic medical schools, use the AACOM Choose DO Explorer instead.

Applicants considering both MD and DO programs may therefore want to use both resources when building their school lists.

Start With GPA and MCAT Data

One of the most popular uses of MSAR is comparing your academic profile with recent matriculants.

Suppose you have:

• GPA: 3.75
• MCAT: 510

Rather than automatically applying to schools with the highest rankings, compare those numbers with the ranges reported by schools you are considering.

But do not treat a school's median as a minimum requirement.

A median simply means that half of the relevant group scored above that number and half below it. Applicants with numbers outside the median can still be admitted.

Use GPA and MCAT data to judge academic alignment, not to predict your exact probability of acceptance.

Check Residency Preferences

This is one of the most important filters applicants sometimes overlook.

Some public medical schools strongly favor applicants from their own state or region.

A school may look academically perfect based on your GPA and MCAT, but if it accepts very few out-of-state students, it may not be a practical addition to your list.

MSAR provides information that can help you examine:

• In-state applicants
• Out-of-state applicants
• Matriculant residency
• International applicant policies
• Canadian applicant policies

The AAMC also publishes free MSAR reports covering policies such as whether schools accept out-of-state, international, Canadian, or DACA applicants.

This can save both application fees and time.

Verify Prerequisite Coursework

Medical school prerequisites are not identical everywhere.

One school may require specific semesters of biology, chemistry, physics, or English, while another may use competency-based requirements or accept different coursework.

MSAR provides school-specific prerequisite information to help applicants identify these differences.

Check prerequisites before applying, not after receiving a secondary.

If you are missing a required course and cannot complete it before matriculation, that school may need to come off your list.

Compare More Than Academics

A strong medical school list should reflect where you would genuinely want to study.

Use MSAR to research factors such as:

• Curriculum: Is the curriculum traditional, systems-based, integrated, or accelerated?
• Clinical education: When does patient exposure begin and where do students complete rotations?
• Research: Are research opportunities important to the school's curriculum?
• Mission: Does the program emphasize primary care, research, rural medicine, underserved communities, or another area?
• Class size: Would you prefer a smaller learning environment or a larger institution?
• Location: Would you realistically live there for four years?
• Cost: How much are tuition and estimated expenses?

These factors can matter just as much as whether your MCAT is close to the school's median.

Look at Mission Fit

Medical schools frequently have clearly defined missions.

One program might prioritize:

• Rural healthcare
• Primary care
• Research
• Health equity
• Physician-scientist development
• Community medicine

Your experiences should make sense in relation to the schools you select.

For example, an applicant with extensive rural service may have strong mission alignment with schools focused on rural medicine.

Likewise, applicants who have built meaningful healthcare exposure can better assess what type of training environment interests them. Students looking for supervised clinical exposure before applying can explore Go-Elective's Pre-Health and Pre-Med Internships.

Check Application and Secondary Requirements

MSAR can also help you plan the application season itself.

Current MSAR resources include information about:

• Primary application deadlines
• Secondary applications
• Secondary fees
• Interview requirements
• Application review
• Waitlist policies

The AAMC also publishes 22 free MSAR reports covering admissions policies and requirements for applicants to the 2027 entering class.

This information can help prevent unpleasant surprises after you have already paid to apply.

How Much Does MSAR Cost?

MSAR offers both free information and paid subscription access.

The current AAMC Fee Assistance Program values its complimentary two-year MSAR subscription at $41.

Paid access unlocks more detailed school-specific information than the free version.

Applicants approved for the AAMC Fee Assistance Program receive complimentary two-year MSAR access as part of their benefits.

If you are preparing to apply to several MD programs, the relatively small subscription cost can be worthwhile compared with paying primary and secondary application fees for schools that are clearly poor fits.

A Better Way to Build Your School List

Rather than dividing medical schools into simplistic categories such as "easy," "target," and "reach," evaluate each school across several dimensions.

A useful spreadsheet might look like this:

This gives you a more realistic picture than looking at MCAT scores alone.

Avoid the Idea of a Medical School "Safety"

There are no true safety schools in medical school admissions.

Even applicants whose GPA and MCAT exceed a school's medians can be rejected.

Medical schools consider many additional factors, including:

• Clinical experience
• Service
• Essays
• Recommendations
• Interviews
• Academic trends
• Mission alignment
• Personal attributes

Use MSAR to identify reasonable fits, not guaranteed acceptances.

How Many Medical Schools Should You Apply To?

There is no perfect number for every applicant.

Your list should depend on:

• Academic profile
• State residency
• MD vs DO strategy
• Financial resources
• Geographic flexibility
• School missions
• International or citizenship status

Applying to more schools can also become expensive.

For the 2027 AMCAS cycle, applying to 20 schools costs $1,092 in primary application fees alone, before secondary fees.

A carefully researched list can therefore save significant money.

MSAR Alternatives and Free Resources

You do not have to rely entirely on paid MSAR access.

The AAMC publishes numerous free resources, including public MSAR reports covering:

• Application policies
• Secondary requirements
• Applicant eligibility
• Early decision programs
• Admissions information

The reports for applicants targeting the 2027 entering class are updated throughout the application cycle.

For DO programs, use the Choose DO Explorer from AACOM.

Individual medical school admissions websites should also be checked before applying because requirements and policies can change.

Your Medical School Research Checklist

Before adding a school to your final list, check:

• GPA and MCAT profile
• In-state vs out-of-state preference
• International applicant eligibility
• Prerequisite coursework
• Mission and priorities
• Curriculum
• Clinical opportunities
• Research options
• Tuition and cost of attendance
• Application deadline
• Secondary requirements
• Interview format

Then ask yourself one final question:

If this were the only medical school that accepted me, would I genuinely attend? If the answer is no, reconsider paying to apply.

Final Thoughts

MSAR is most valuable when you use it for more than comparing GPA and MCAT scores.

A good medical school list balances academic fit, eligibility, mission, geography, cost, curriculum, and personal priorities.

Use MSAR to eliminate programs where you clearly do not meet requirements, identify schools that fit your goals, and understand the differences between programs before spending hundreds or thousands of dollars applying.

Your goal is not to find the largest possible list.

It is to build the right list for you.

FAQs About MSAR

#1. What does MSAR stand for?

MSAR stands for Medical School Admission Requirements. It is an AAMC database containing information about MD-granting medical schools in the United States and Canada.

#2. Is MSAR free?

Some MSAR information and AAMC reports are available free, while detailed features require a paid subscription. Eligible AAMC Fee Assistance Program recipients receive complimentary two-year access.

#3. Does MSAR include DO schools?

No. MSAR features MD-granting, LCME-accredited medical schools in the United States and Canada. Applicants researching DO schools should use AACOM's Choose DO Explorer.

#4. How often is MSAR updated?

The AAMC publishes a comprehensively updated MSAR edition every spring, typically in April, while some individual reports and information are updated throughout the year.

#5. Can MSAR tell me my chances of getting into medical school?

No. MSAR can help you compare your academic profile and eligibility with individual schools, but it cannot reliably predict admission because schools use holistic admissions processes.

#6. Should I apply only to schools where my MCAT is above the median?

No. Medians are useful benchmarks, not cutoffs. Consider the broader MCAT and GPA distributions alongside your experiences, residency status, mission fit, and the rest of your application.

Article Details

Categories

Recent Articles , MCAT/MSAR/USMLE, Med Schools, Pre-health,

Author: Tatina Himes

Date Published: Sep 4, 2026