December 8, 2025
Written By
Michael Minh Le
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If you’re trying to figure out whether UVA is in reach, you’re probably asking the right question: What is the UVA medical school acceptance rate? That number tells you more than just how selective the school is. It helps you decide if your stats, story, and strategy are strong enough to compete at a top-tier program like the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
This guide breaks down everything you need to know about getting into UVA Med in 2025. We’ll cover acceptance rates, GPA and MCAT averages, admissions requirements, tuition and scholarships, and what sets UVA apart from other medical schools. You’ll also get a complete walkthrough of the application process, from your personal statement and secondaries to interviews and letters of recommendation.
And if you want to see what a real successful UVA application looks like, check out the Application Database. It includes 8 full AMCAS applications that earned acceptances to top programs like UCLA and UCI. Study how they framed their stories so you can reverse engineer what works.
Get your free resource here.
For the 2025 entering class, the University of Virginia School of Medicine received 6,469 applications. Out of those, just 156 students matriculated.
That means the UVA Medical School acceptance rate is about 2.4%.
That’s not exactly forgiving. UVA is a top-tier public med school with a national reach. About 80% of students come from out of state. So if you’re a Virginia resident, you won’t receive any state preference.
For the most recent class, the average GPA for accepted UVA med students was 3.89. The average MCAT score? 518.
That’s significantly higher than the national averages, about 3.77 for GPA and 511.7 for MCAT. Bottom line: UVA isn’t just looking for smart applicants. They’re looking for academic standouts.
Still, they don’t set strict cutoffs for GPA or MCAT. But realistically? If you’re coming in with a GPA below 3.3 or MCAT sections under 127, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle.
To be eligible for admission to the University of Virginia School of Medicine, you’ll need to complete the following coursework:
UVA also recommends coursework in humanities, social sciences, and writing. While they don’t require a specific major, they do expect you to demonstrate strong critical thinking, communication skills, and scientific competency.
You’ll also need to meet this list of general requirements:
No citizenship or residency restriction. International students can apply, as long as they’ve done 90 credits at a U.S. or Canadian school.
No CASPer test or situational judgment screening. It’s not part of UVA’s application process.
For the 2025–2026 academic year, tuition and fees are about $55,054 for Virginia residents and $69,002 for out-of-state students.
When you factor in living expenses, books, supplies, transportation, and other personal costs, the estimated annual cost of attendance rises to about $80,918 for in-state and $94,866 for out-of-state students. Over four years, that can bring total costs close to or exceeding $300,000, depending on your residency and lifestyle.
That being said, UVA-SOM offers multiple financial aid pathways to ease this burden. The school provides need-based institutional aid to students who demonstrate financial need, based on FAFSA and additional school-specific documentation. These scholarships are renewable annually, assuming the student maintains eligibility. Merit-based scholarships are also available and do not require a separate application.
Students with a passion for primary care may qualify for the Generalist Scholars Program (GSP), which offers not only educational support but also financial assistance to those pursuing family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, or med-peds. Additionally, UVA students commonly use federal student loans (unsubsidized and Grad PLUS), and many also seek outside scholarships and grants to round out their funding.
About 80% of UVA medical students rely on a combination of scholarships and loans to finance their education. And the average debt at graduation for UVA’s Class of 2023 was about $156,691, significantly lower than the national average of around $250,000.
At the University of Virginia School of Medicine, it’s not just about passing exams or racking up clinical hours. It’s about building physicians who are not only clinically excellent but also human-centered, curious, and deeply committed to service. Below are a few of the defining qualities that make UVA-SOM a standout choice for future doctors.
UVA’s innovative NextGen Curriculum blends early clinical experiences with integrated, systems-based learning. From the very first year, students are placed in real clinical environments, allowing them to apply foundational science to patient care early and often. The result is a more meaningful academic experience and a stronger clinical skill set from day one.
UVA Health, the affiliated academic medical center, is consistently ranked as one of the top hospitals in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic. Students rotate through a wide range of specialties, including high-acuity areas like trauma surgery, intensive care, and transplant medicine. The hospital’s status as a referral center ensures exposure to complex, rare, and diverse cases that prepare students for residency-level responsibilities.
Whether you're interested in bench research, translational medicine, or health policy, UVA offers rich opportunities to get involved. The school is home to several NIH-funded research centers, and students can join longitudinal research tracks or take time off to pursue full-time research. For future physician-scientists, the MD/PhD program is fully funded and highly collaborative.
UVA strongly supports students who want to explore medicine beyond borders, whether through global health trips, underserved rural outreach in Virginia, or partnerships with refugee health clinics. The school emphasizes service learning as a core component of its curriculum, encouraging students to remain connected to the communities they hope to serve.
Students have dedicated time built into their third and fourth years for electives, acting internships, and individualized scholarly projects. This flexibility allows students to pursue passions, whether it’s building a public health initiative, writing case reports, or deepening skills in a particular specialty before residency.
Getting into the University of Virginia School of Medicine means more than just checking off boxes or hitting the average stats. The students who stand out are the ones who go beyond the numbers and tell a story that makes admissions stop and say, “We need this person in our class.” You’re applying to a school that values character, leadership, and a deep commitment to community, so your application needs to reflect that if you want a chance at acceptance.
UVA School of Medicine participates in the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) for its MD‑program applications.
The school uses a rolling admissions process. That means that once applications begin being submitted and processed, selections (interview invites and offers) are made continuously rather than waiting until a fixed deadline.
So, you can’t procrastinate this application timeline if you want to stay competitive:
The personal statement is not just about saying the right things. It’s about showing them. Your experiences are your proof. If you say you care about health equity, then you should show experiences in community clinics and public health outreach. If you say mentorship matters to you, where have you mentored? What impact did it have?
UVA looks for students who are reflective, driven, and ready to serve, and your personal statement is where that has to shine.
When you submit a secondary to a med school, you aren’t just re‑stating your résumé; you’re showing admissions committees who you really are, how you think, and how well you’d fit at their school. Below are the most recent secondary prompts for UVA and some advice on how to approach each one.
Prompt (2025‑2026 cycle):
Why are you interested in attending the University of Virginia School of Medicine? What factors will be most important to you in choosing a medical school? (350 words max)
You should treat this as more than just “why med school.” Be extremely specific about what interests you about UVA. Maybe it’s the integrated curriculum, the opportunity to do research and clinical care, the community vibe of a college‑based system, or the chance to rotate through both their Charlottesville and regional campuses. Then tie those factors to your own journey: what you value, how you work, what you want out of medicine. Show them that you’ve thought deeply about fit, not just reputation.
Prompt (2025‑2026 cycle):
Tell us about a challenge or obstacle you experienced. How did you manage it? (350 words max)
Use this to highlight resilience, growth, and character. Pick something that genuinely tested you, not just a minor inconvenience, and then show how you responded: what you learned, how you adapted, how that shaped you. Medicine is hard. They want people who don’t just survive challenges, but reflect and grow. Don’t just describe hardship; describe who you became because of it.
Short‑answer:
Please briefly describe how the pandemic impacted your ability to pursue experiences like clinical work, shadowing, research, or community service.
Here’s your chance to show resilience and flexibility. Many applicants lost opportunities because of COVID. If you were affected, be honest, but use the space to highlight how you adapted. Did you find alternate ways to help, like remote volunteering, community aid, self‑study, or advocacy? Show that even when things got disrupted, you kept pushing forward.
Short‑answer:
Please list any and all future activities in clinical work, shadowing, research, or community service that you plan to pursue in the upcoming year.
This prompt is about momentum & commitment. Don’t just list what you hope to do. List concrete, planned activities. If you’re still figuring out specifics, frame them as goals with a plan. It shows you’re intentional, organized, and serious about making the most of your time, not just waiting around.
When you're applying to the University of Virginia School of Medicine, the letters of recommendation you submit through AMCAS can make or break your application, and yes, they must go through AMCAS. Do not send letters directly to the school.
UVA strongly prefers that you submit a committee-style or pre-health advising letter if your undergraduate institution offers one. This type of letter gives the admissions committee a broad, contextualized view of your academics, extracurriculars, and character all in one place.
If yours doesn’t, UVA requires you to submit at least two individual letters, and ideally, these should come from science professors or equivalent faculty who taught you and actually got to know you.
There’s no hard maximum on how many letters you can send, but that doesn’t mean more is better. UVA has said clearly: your application will be stronger with just a few meaningful letters from individuals who know you well, rather than a stack of vague, surface-level ones. So don’t overthink the number. Focus on the impact.
UVA SOM uses a traditional interview format rather than an MMI.
The interview day typically consists of two interviews, each about 30 minutes. One interview is with a faculty member. The other interview will be with either another faculty member or a fourth‑year medical student.
Expect the interviewers to have read your full application. They know your grades, ECs, research/shadowing, volunteer service, and personal statement.
You are likely to be asked about your motivations for medicine, past experiences (clinical, volunteer, research), what shaped you, how you deal with challenges, and why UVA in particular often framed in a way to show how you’d fit UVA’s mission of combining clinical care, research, and community‑oriented medicine.
Where you go to medical school matters. What feels like a great “fit” for one premed might be a poor match for another. The right school aligns with your learning style, values, and long‑term career goals.
UVA School of Medicine is a good fit if you…
UVA School of Medicine May Not Be a Good Fit If…
Virginia Commonwealth University
You’ve seen how competitive UVA’s School of Medicine is. So the real question becomes: how do you stand out?
The truth is, most premeds guess. They write essays that feel generic. They list activities that sound like everyone else’s. And they end up reapplying after a cycle of silence.
But you don’t have to guess.
We’ve put together a free resource that shows you exactly what successful applicants submitted. Inside the Application Database, you’ll find 8 real AMCAS applications that earned acceptances to schools like UCLA, UCI, and more.
Whether you’re applying this year or still planning your path, this is your chance to reverse engineer what works.
Get your free resource here.
