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Reviewed by:
Former Admissions Committee Member, Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine
Reviewed: 06/27/24
If you’re hoping to join a medical school that’ll prepare you to lead an extraordinary career involving innovation, compassion, and service, read on to learn more about how to get into Loyola medical school.
The Stitch School of Medicine is known for its excellent clinical education, considerable research opportunities, collaborative team, and state-of-the-art facilities.
With a commitment to go beyond just the facts, experimentation, and treatment of disease, this school promises its students a unique medical education that treats not only the human body but the human spirit and values human dignity.
If you feel your medical values and goals align with Loyola's, this guide will explain in depth the programs this medical school offers, its admission statistics and requirements, secondary essays, and much more!
In an effort to support you throughout your medical journey, this medical school offers several programs to its prospective students:
Loyola also offers several certificate healthcare programs for students interested in enhancing or refreshing their medical knowledge.
Now that you know all of the programs available to you if you pursue a medical education at Loyola, it’s essential to go over their admission statistics. Since the most popular degree students opt for is an MD, the remainder of this guide will focus on admission information relating to this degree.
Before delving into the exact scores you should aim for to maximize your chances of getting into this school, let’s discuss its competitiveness.
Out of the 12,000+ candidates that applied to Loyola, only 170 candidates enrolled in the 2028 class. Accordingly, the Loyola acceptance rate is approximately 1.4%, meaning it is highly competitive!
Now that you know just how challenging it will be to get into Stitch School of Medicine, it’s essential to know what GPA you should aim for to be considered a competitive applicant. The average GPA and science GPA of the incoming class was 3.7 and 3.6, respectively.
Students should aim for a GPA in this range or higher.
One of the most important scores to consider when considering Loyola is its median MCAT score. Since Loyola assesses its candidates using holistic measures that consider their entire application, it does not have MCAT cut-off scores.
However, based on their previous accepted students, an MCAT score of 512 or higher should put you in the competitive range to be considered an attractive candidate.
If you want to truly stand out, meet with an expert tutor in Chicago at Inspira Advantage. Our experts will help you grasp important concepts in all sections of the MCAT.
Your GPA and MCAT scores aren’t the only application materials Loyola will consider when assessing your candidacy. Here is the complete list of the basic requirements and prerequisites for applying to this medical school.
As stated, you’ll need to maintain a 3.7 GPA or higher to increase your chances of getting into Loyola. While you may choose any major you have an interest in to achieve this GPA, this school recommends students choose a challenging major that includes courses in liberal arts and science disciplines.
There are also several prerequisites you must complete in order to be eligible for application at Loyola:
While these courses are required for admission, students missing courses can submit a proposal to waive them prior to their interviews.
You must also write the MCAT in order to apply to Loyola. Loyola will only accept MCAT scores that are up to three years old, so ensure you write the MCAT within this time period to avoid any delays in your application.
Give yourself enough time to retake the MCAT in case, like a large percentage of test takers, you’re unable to reach your target score on the first try.
Since the committee knows good scores don’t necessarily make good doctors, they ask prospective students to also submit a personal statement detailing their values and goals.
Loyola is a Jesuit medical school. They prioritize service and expect you to emphasize this passion in your personal statement. It’s also recommended you describe your journey to medical school. What or who inspired you to pursue medicine? What was the story of your epiphany? What challenges did you face?
The final application materials you’ll have to submit are letters of recommendation. Loyola asks its prospective students to submit at least three letters but no more than six.
While a committee letter is preferred, you may also submit individual letters. These letters will be best received if written by mentors who can accurately attest to your character, academic potential, personal qualities, and abilities.
At least one should come from a science professor and a supervisor. It’s recommended the remaining letter(s) be written by academic faculty who have taught you in a classroom or laboratory setting.
Along with your primary application, you will have to submit a secondary application involving a series of essays. To ensure you’re prepared for these essays and submit well-thought-out responses, here are the prompts you can expect to see:
1. Explain how you know that you want to spend your life studying and practicing medicine. Describe how the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) can help you develop into the person and physician you hope to become.
2. Social justice, in the Jesuit tradition, justice due to each person’s inherent human dignity, is an essential dimension of education at SSOM. Describe an impactful experience working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have learned about yourself through this service OR what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.
3. Relate a situation within your professional formation in which you determined that something you did or said did not go over well with someone else. How did you know? What did you do? What did you learn from the experience?
4. Describe a time you received feedback about your performance and disagreed with the feedback. What did you disagree with? How did you handle it?
5. Describe a non-academic personal/professional challenge or conflict that you have experienced. Explain what skills, resources and/or strategies you employed to resolve the problem.
The next series of questions should only be answered if they’re applicable to your situation.
6. Have you or any of your relatives attended or been employed by Loyola University Chicago or the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine?
7. Please indicate additional grades earned, amendments to your proposed coursework or graduation date, address changes, additions to your list of experiences, and anything else you feel we should know.
8. Please explain in more detail (in less than 1500 characters) anything that would help us understand any gaps or delays in your education, academic missteps, or personal challenges not listed elsewhere.
9. If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended.
10.Have you applied to SSOM prior to this application? If so, please list the years of your previous application submissions to SSOM and tell us how your application has improved since your previous submission.
11. Are you currently, or have you been, enrolled in any of the following programs?
12. Have you ever been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic or parking violation? If the answer is yes, please explain below.
13. If you did not submit an advisor or committee letter, please tell us why.
Ensure you keep your answers concise and honest! The committee will be able to see through exaggerations or false stories. Ensure you start on the right foot and only provide accurate responses to these prompts.
Once you’ve submitted your application and wowed the admissions committee, the next step to get into Stitch School of Medicine is to complete your interview.
Your interview will be conducted virtually and allow you to meet faculty members and other students. You will also be invited to partake in a virtual campus tour and participate in a panel with current medical students who can shine a light on the Loyola educational experience.
Aside from the admission statistics, process, and materials required to apply to Loyola, it’s essential you keep the following key deadlines in mind to ensure a smooth application process:
Source: Loyola School of Medicine
Loyola accepts students on a rolling basis until spots are filled. However, to ensure you have the best chance of getting into this school, you should apply as early as possible when there are the most seats available.
Understanding how much you’ll need to invest into your medical education is an important part of preparing for your career. For instance, you likely already know you’ll have to dedicate over a decade of your time to join this field.
Aside from the time commitment, you can also expect to invest a lot of money into becoming a physician. Loyola costs over $78,000 a year in tuition and fees alone. With other personal expenses such as housing and textbooks, the total cost to attend Loyola is estimated to be over $100,000 annually.
Students have several options when budgeting for medical school. Up to 80% of Loyola students receive financial assistance, which is typically a combination of loans and scholarships. Loyola also offers several types of needs-based awards to assist students in attending medical school.
Now that you know the basics of getting into Loyola, you may be wondering if there are ways to make your application stand out to maximize your chances of admission.
Follow these three tips to ensure your application is differentiated and impresses the admissions committee!
Loyola believes a strong foundation in science is essential to succeed in medical school. As such, they assess each applicant’s potential by paying close attention to their science prerequisites, academic achievements, and MCAT scores.
Since the MCAT is largely science-based, it is a good predictor of a student’s scientific abilities and performance potential. Accordingly, Loyola weighs this part of the application heavily in its decisions.
To ensure you convince the judges that you have a strong foundation in science, you should create an effective study plan that you know you can commit to for several weeks or months. The recommended time to study for the MCAT is around three months.
Ensure you invest in good resources and remain focused to reach your target MCAT score.
As mentioned, the Stritch School of Medicine is a Jesuit School. As such, service is a core principle that Loyola expects its prospective students to share. Students should focus on gaining significant experience serving others, particularly marginalized or underserved populations.
The admission committee typically selects students with substantial service commitments. In fact, the 2028 class had an average of nearly 900 hours of both medically based and non-medical service per student.
Begin volunteering early into your undergraduate career to accumulate enough hours to prove your service dedication.
Aside from having extensive service experience, Loyola appreciates when students have a significant amount of healthcare and leadership experience. This experience will better prepare you for medical school and your eventual medical career.
It’s suggested that students gain experience shadowing physicians and working directly with patients to prove they’ve explored their motivations and confirmed medicine is the correct path for them. Past accepted students have had an average of 1,785 hours of paid clinical experience.
If possible, you should also gain research experience as Loyola offers world-class research facilities. Students should aim to have around 1,200+ hours of research experience to be considered attractive applicants.
In terms of leadership experience, physicians are leaders of healthcare and must possess strong interpersonal and communication skills to do their job well. You should have informal and formal leadership positions on your application.
This may include outside projects, work, volunteer or extracurricular activities, or even courses that helped you improve your communication skills.
Above all else, Loyola appreciates when students excel in various aspects of their lives. Your application should demonstrate that you’ve been successful in both your personal and professional pursuits and that you have a knack for excellence.
For any remaining questions about getting into Loyola med school, read on to find your answers.
Loyola is challenging to get into! It has a low acceptance rate but high expectations of its students. Students must bring their A-game to their applications to ensure they prove their academic potential and a commitment to Loyola’s core values: service, excellence, and dedication.
The average MCAT score for Loyola is around 511.
Loyola is known for its unique curriculum that extends beyond theory. With a focus on healing the human spirit and body, this school offers its students an education that prioritizes holistic care and addresses health disparities.
Additionally, this school is known for the extensive clinical experience it offers its students that help them adapt to the complexities of healthcare.
Yes, despite Loyola being an unranked medical school, it can offer students the right resources, support, and experience to kickstart prosperous careers as compassionate, driven, and well-rounded physicians.
Students should aim for a GPA of around 3.7 to be considered competitive applicants.
The Stritch School of Medicine is located in Chicago, Illinois.
In this guide, we’ve gone over the main questions: “what is Loyola medical school known for?” “how do I get into this medical school?” and “how can I stand out as an applicant?”
After going over the answers to these questions, you should have a better idea of if Loyola is the right medical school for you and your chances of getting into it!
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