Medical Schools
A doctor of allopathic medicine attends medical school for four years, after which he or she undertakes graduate medical education by taking up residency in a specialty for 3 or more additional years of training. Students hoping to get accepted the first time they apply should strive for at least a 3.5 GPA. For schools such as Duke, Johns Hopkins, or Vanderbilt, most students should have a 3.9 or better and score 11 or better on each of the 3 parts of the MCAT. For the 1997 entering class there were 512,878 applications filed by 43,020 vying for 16,165 positions resulting in 35% of the applicants enrolling.