Updated at: 07-04-2023 - By: Eden Wise

Overview

If you’re looking to build a rewarding and successful career in healthcare, New York is a great choice. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, then, that New York has more medical schools per capita than any other state, including California.

Many of the best medical schools in the country are located in New York, providing not only an excellent education but also connections to some of the best hospitals in the country. The state of New York is home to some of the best medical minds and practitioners in the country, many of whom also hold faculty positions at the state’s top universities.

Using each institution’s ranking on the US News Medical Schools – Research list, we’ve compiled the following table. While US News includes the top nine schools on their list, the tenth was chosen by College Gazette editors.

Without further ado, here is a list of the top New York medical schools.

Best Medical Schools In New York

Best medical schools in new york

Albany Medical College

The Albany Medical College has been around for quite some time, making it one of the nation’s most prestigious private medical institutions. Students at Albany rotate through the Albany Medical Center Hospital, the busiest Level 1 trauma center in New York, and the only academic medical center in northeastern New York, which is located on the Albany campus. Albany is one of only a small number of med schools outside of the New York City metro area, and it is well-known for its small class sizes, modified pass/fail grading system, and relatively low cost of living.

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Along with its top-ten ranking and Ivy League prestige, Columbia became the first medical school in the country in 2018 to replace all loans with scholarships for students who qualified for financial aid. Columbia’s curriculum stands out for a number of reasons: its emphasis on narrative medicine, which was founded at Columbia, its Differentiation & Integration block, in which students take electives and pursue a scholarly project, and its many opportunities for students to take advantage of Columbia’s research might. Students at Columbia gain extensive clinical training through rotations at numerous New York City hospitals and through the school’s student-run, free clinics. In addition, the Columbia University School of Medicine provides the Columbia-Bassett rural medicine concentration.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

The mission of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is to train doctors and scientists with the drive and imagination to revolutionize healthcare through their own research and advocacy. Its pedagogical tenet “combines the best traditions of medicine with the principles and entrepreneurial thinking of a startup” exemplifies this drive to effect positive change. The name of Icahn’s early assurance program, FlexMed, gives away the school’s commitment to a pass/fail, adaptable curriculum; for example, students can choose to undertake a year-long scholarly project, and “Flex Time” for self-directed, individualized learning, discovery, and leadership development is embedded in each of the four years. The unique hospital affiliation of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai makes it one of the best places to study medicine in the United States.

New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine

NYITCOM, located on Long Island, is an osteopathic medical school with a focus on population-based, patient-centered care. Particular attention is paid to ensuring that students are ready to work in underserved areas, rural communities, and international settings. Applicants have the option of specifying whether they would like to be considered for either the original New York campus or the more recent Jonesboro, Arkansas campus. Synchronized campus-wide lectures, telemedicine, and robotics are all part of NYITCOM’s technology-infused curriculum. Students also benefit from a non-mandatory lecture streaming system and a pass/fail grading system.

As more medical schools have opened in and around New York City, NYITCOM has taken some heat for a few reasons, including its large entering class size (around 320 students each year), high attrition rate (greater than 10%), and loss of many hospital affiliations. But each year, students at NYITCOM can select from a wide range of clinical rotations at locations all over the New York City area.

University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

The University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine, which was founded in 1846, is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious medical institutions. Also, both in-state and out-of-state students can benefit from Buffalo’s medical school’s reasonable tuition rates.

The Jacobs School of Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey does not run its own hospital. Buffalo General Medical Center, John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, and Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital are just a few of the hospitals in Buffalo that UB students can use.

Medical students at the University at Buffalo regularly receive prestigious awards from respected scholarly publications during their time in school. Among them is one Natalia Quade, whose work was just recognized with the prestigious Paper of the Year award from the American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology.

Less than one-tenth of those who apply to the University at Buffalo’s medical school are accepted.

Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine

Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine is ranked number one among New York’s public medical schools by US News, making it an attractive and cost-effective choice for New York residents interested in pursuing a medical degree.

With annual research funding of $90 million, Renaissance School of Medicine has helped advance scientific and medical progress. Important historical discoveries made at this institution include the root cause of lyme disease, the technology that paved the way for the MRI, and improvements to the PET scan.

Stony Brook University Hospital is the school’s very own hospital, where students can get hands-on, individual experience. The Stony Brook Medical Center is the tenth best hospital in the state of New York, according to US News.

The faculty and administration at Renaissance Medical School are committed to continuous improvement. That’s why we’ve grown the faculty by more than 22 percent in the last five years. Fifteen new chairs with endowments were added in the same time frame.

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Established in 1925, the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) now houses the medical school and dental college that bear the same name. According to US News, this medical institution is among the best 35 in the country.

The University of Rochester School of Medicine’s adoption of the biopsychosocial educational model is one of the things that sets it apart from other medical schools. This approach considers the “whole” patient by looking at symptoms of illness from multiple angles (physical, psychological, and social). The legendary psychiatrist George Engel spent nearly his entire career at the University of Rochester, where he pioneered this educational model.

With nearly $1.2 billion in biomedical funding over the past five years, research is at the center of the Rochester experience. Furthermore, Rochester provides the Academic Research Track (ART), a program consisting of funded seminars and mentorship with committed faculty, for students who seriously consider research to be an integral part of their future career.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

The Bronx is home to Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Over 1,800 full-time faculty, 711 medical students, and 160 doctoral students call this institution home. The institution prides itself on being a “research-intensive medical school” that teaches its students to do more than just practice medicine well; they also learn how to discover and develop novel information. Beyond the biological sciences, the college encourages its students to draw from the humanities and social sciences in order to become agents of positive change in the world. Because of the school’s proximity to New York City and Long Island, Einstein students can take advantage of a wide range of clinical rotations in each of the five boroughs.

Cornell University

Cornell University’s medical school, another powerhouse in the elite Ivy League, regularly places among the best in the country. Weill Cornell Medicine has nothing to do with Cornell University’s main campus in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes area. The variety of clinical opportunities available in a major city cannot be replicated in a small town in Upstate New York. The Lenox Hill section of Manhattan is home to the medical institution. The impressive annual patient volume at Weill Cornell Medicine is 1.7 million, and students are able to gain practical experience through clerkships in specialties such as neurology, psychiatry, surgery, anesthesia, obstetrics/gynecology, and primary care.

New York University

New York University

NYU Langone Health is another top-tier medical institution in New York City. The institution has undergone many transformations in recent years in order to better realize its aims of “to teach, to serve, and to discover.” One of the major issues with medical school is that students incur six-figure debt and often make career decisions based on how much money they can make from their chosen specialty or practice. No matter their family’s financial situation, all MD students at New York University are awarded full tuition scholarships. Students are then free to pursue their passions and serve under-resourced areas. The university has expanded the adaptability of its medical doctoral (MD) programs by introducing a number of dual-degree and accelerated three-year options.

Osteopathic Medical School at Touro

Harlem and the Hudson Valley are both home to the New York campuses of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. Touro’s mission is to improve access to healthcare for underserved communities by increasing the number of doctors from underrepresented minority backgrounds and preparing future doctors to serve those communities. During the pre-clinical years, Touro uses a flipped classroom model and places an emphasis on community service. Students at Touro rotate through clinical sites in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, with about 80% of Touro’s hospital affiliates situated in medically underserved rural and urban communities. However, it should be noted that Touro’s lower-than-average COMLEX II pass rates and lack of high-quality rotation sites have been criticized in recent years.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell, like Columbia, is a prestigious institution that offers students the opportunity to graduate with no student loan debt. Cornell is distinguished from other universities by its progressive curriculum, which emphasizes student participation, independent research, and collaborative projects over passive listening to lectures. Furthermore, Cornell is well-known for its global health focus and provides students with opportunities to provide clinical care and conduct research in 62 different countries. Cornell is located on the same campus as several other prestigious medical institutions, including New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, providing students with excellent clinical exposure to a diverse patient population through student-run clinics as well as top-notch research opportunities.

FAQs

Are there any good medical schools in New York?

New York University (Langone), Columbia University Medical Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Weill Cornell University School of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine are all among the top 50 medical schools in the country, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report.

How much does it cost to study MBBS in New York?

Medical practice is available to those who have completed a residency program. After graduating from high school in the United States, it takes anywhere from seven to ten years to complete an MBBS program. Costs for an American MBBS degree typically range from $200,000 to $300,000.

Conclusion

There is a lot of competition to get into medical school in New York because of the high percentage of out-of-state students who choose to enroll. Nonetheless, check your facts and values against the stated goals of specific programs with a data-driven approach. If you can show that you are a good fit for each program on your applications, you may spend four years learning medicine in New York.