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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.
If your medical values and goals align with Loyola's, this guide will explain the programs this medical school offers, its admission statistics and requirements, secondary essays, and more!
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 the programs available, reviewing their admission statistics is essential. 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.
Of the 12,060 candidates who applied to Loyola, only 170 enrolled in the recent class, while 3 applicants deferred admission. This makes the acceptance rate at Loyola Medical School approximately 1.43%, meaning it is highly competitive.
Please note that this is an approximate acceptance rate and refers to the percentage of matriculants and deferred students compared to verified applications. Medical schools often don’t release data pertaining to accepted applicants and verified applications.
Now that you know just how challenging it will be to get into the Stritch School of Medicine, you must know what GPA you should aim for to be considered a competitive applicant. The average GPA of accepted students was 3.78, so you should aim for a GPA above 3.8.
One of the most important scores to consider when considering Loyola is its average MCAT score. Since Loyola assesses its candidates using holistic measures that consider their entire application, it does not have MCAT cut-off scores.
However, the average MCAT score is 513, so you should aim for a score above this to be considered competitive.
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 3.8 GPA or higher to increase your chances of getting into Loyola. While you may choose any major you want to achieve this GPA, this school recommends that students choose a challenging major that includes courses in liberal arts and science.
There are also several prerequisites you must complete:
While these courses are required for admission, students missing courses can submit a proposal to waive them before their interviews.
You must also write the MCAT to apply to Loyola. Loyola will only accept MCAT scores up to three years old, so ensure you write the MCAT within this 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 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 that 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 that the remaining letter(s) be written by academic faculty who have taught you in a classroom or laboratory setting.
You must submit a secondary application involving a series of essays along with your primary application. To ensure you’re prepared for these essays and submit well-thought-out responses, here are the prompts you can expect to see.
There is a 500-word maximum for all questions.
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 apply 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?
Applicant Boot Camp or Health Equity and Advocacy Leaders (ASPIRE)
Early Assurance Program (EAP)
Health Professionals Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP)
Loyola University Chicago undergraduate (LUC)
Loyola MA in Medical Sciences (LUC MAMS)
Loyola MS in Medical Physiology (LUC MSMP)
Loyola Masters in Infectious Disease and Immunology (INDIRI)
Proviso United with Loyola for Educational Enrichment (PULSE)
Medical Minority Applicant Registry (MED-MAR)
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. Start on the right foot and only provide accurate responses to these prompts.
Once you’ve submitted your application and wowed the admissions committee, completing your interview is the next step to get into Stritch School of Medicine.
Your interview will be conducted virtually, allowing you to meet faculty members and other students. You will also be invited to take a virtual campus tour and participate in a panel with current medical students who can illuminate the Loyola educational experience.
Now that you know the basics of getting into Loyola, you may wonder 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 scientific foundation 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 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 convince the judges that you have a strong scientific foundation, you should create a practical 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, 90% of the incoming class had community service experience.
Begin volunteering early in 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.
Students should gain experience shadowing physicians and working directly with patients to prove they’ve explored their motivations and confirmed medicine is the correct path.
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 healthcare leaders 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 succeeded in both your personal and professional pursuits and have a knack for excellence.
Understanding how much you’ll need to invest in your medical education is integral to preparing for your career. For instance, you likely already know you’ll have to dedicate over a decade to joining this field.
Aside from the time commitment, you can also expect to invest a lot of money in becoming a physician. The tuition cost at Loyola medical school is $70,610 for the first two years and $47,073.34 for the final two years. With other personal expenses such as housing and textbooks, the total cost to attend Loyola is $256,989.80.
Students have several options when budgeting for medical school. Nearly 85% of Loyola students receive financial assistance, typically a combination of loans and scholarships. Loyola also offers several types of needs-based awards to assist students in attending medical school.
Aside from the admission statistics, process, and materials required to apply to Loyola, you must keep the following key deadlines in mind to ensure a smooth application process:
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 the most seats are available.
Find your answers for any remaining questions about getting into Loyola medical school below.
Since Loyola Medical School has an extremely low acceptance rate of 1.43%, it is challenging to get into. To put that number into perspective, only one out of 100 students gets accepted.
The average MCAT score for Loyola is 513. Applicants should aim for a score higher than this to be considered competitive.
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, which helps them adapt to the complexities of healthcare.
Yes, Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine is considered a good medical school. It is known for its commitment to social justice, patient-centered care, and Jesuit values. It offers rigorous academics, extensive clinical training through Loyola University Medical Center, and a supportive learning environment.
Students should aim for a GPA higher than the average of 3.78 to be considered competitive applicants.
The Stritch School of Medicine is located in Chicago, Illinois.
In this guide, we’ve covered what Loyola Medical School is known for, how to get in, and how to stand out in the application process. You should now know better if Loyola is the right medical school for you and your chances of getting accepted.
Dr. Jonathan Preminger was the original author of this article. Snippets of his work may remain.
Reviewed by:
Neurologist, Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine
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