TMDSAS Acceptance Rate: 10 Years of Texas Med School Admissions Data

TMDSAS Acceptance Rate: 10 Years of Texas Med School Admissions Data

If you have tried to find the TMDSAS acceptance rate, you have probably hit the same wall everyone does. TMDSAS (the Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service) publishes more than a decade of detailed admissions statistics, but it locks all of them inside an interactive Power BI dashboard. Google cannot crawl it. AI assistants cannot read it. You cannot download a clean table. You click around, watch numbers flicker, and leave without a single figure you can copy, cite, or compare across years.

So we freed the data.

This article republishes the full TMDSAS medical-school admissions dataset — Entry Years 2016 through 2026 — as clean, complete, machine-readable tables. Every number below comes directly from the public TMDSAS stats dashboard, extracted into an open-source dataset you can verify yourself. We compute the rates TMDSAS makes you eyeball (acceptance rate, interview rate, matriculation rate, and yield), break them out by Texas residency and applicant type, and reconcile the single most confused statistic in Texas medical admissions: the out-of-state numbers.

The headline, in plain text: in Entry Year 2024 (the most recent fully completed cycle), TMDSAS received 9,005 applicants, interviewed 5,543 (61.6%), accepted 3,300 (36.6%), and 2,871 matriculated (31.9%). Texas residents were accepted at 42.5%; non-residents at 17.6%. We will unpack all of it below.

Data as of Entry Year 2026 (latest); extracted May 2026. This is an independent, reproducible reproduction of public aggregate figures. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by TMDSAS. Verify every number yourself against our open dataset on GitHub or the original source, the TMDSAS stats dashboard.

How to read these numbers (rate definitions)

Every rate in this article is computed from the raw counts using the same four definitions, so they are comparable across years and groups:

• Interview rate = interviewed ÷ applicants
• Acceptance rate = accepted ÷ applicants
• Matriculation rate = matriculated ÷ applicants
• Yield = matriculated ÷ accepted (the share of accepted applicants who actually enrolled)

One term that trips people up: an "entry year" is the year a cohort intends to start medical school, not the year they applied. The EY2024 cohort applied in 2023 and started classes in 2024. That is the convention TMDSAS uses, and we kept it.

Two caveats to read before any table

Entry Year 2026 is still in progress. As of extraction, EY2026 reported applicant counts only. Its accepted figure is partial and its matriculated figure is zero because final statuses are not assigned until fall 2026. We show the EY2026 applicant count because it is real and complete, but do not treat EY2026 acceptance or matriculation rates as final — they are not. We mark EY2026 rates as "in progress" everywhere they appear.

These are aggregate counts, not row-level data. The original dashboard exposes only pre-aggregated counts and averages. Our extraction reads exactly those — never individual applicant records. Methodology and a full data dictionary are in the open repo.

The TMDSAS admissions funnel, 2016–2026

This is the master table: every applicant, interview, acceptance, and matriculation for each entry year, with all four rates computed.

Source: TMDSAS stats dashboard; rates computed by GradPilot. EY2026 is in progress — applicant count is final, acceptances are partial, matriculations not yet assigned. Rates omitted for EY2026 by design.

What this table actually tells you

A few things jump out, and all of them are supported directly by the counts above.

Applications are up roughly 40% over the decade. TMDSAS received 7,323 applicants for EY2016 and 10,240 for EY2026 — a 39.8% increase. The biggest single jump came in EY2021 (the pandemic-era "Fauci effect" surge), when applicants leapt from 7,783 to 9,482.

Seats have not grown nearly as fast. Acceptances went from 2,553 (EY2016) to 3,295 (EY2025), about a 29% increase, and matriculation has hovered around 2,800–2,900 in recent completed years. More applicants chasing a slower-growing pool of seats means TMDSAS has gotten more competitive over time, even though the raw acceptance rate (mid-30s%) looks stable. The acceptance rate holds steady partly because the denominator and numerator grew together — but the number of people not getting in has climbed substantially.

The interview rate has trended up. From 47.0% in EY2016 to 61.6% in EY2024 — TMDSAS schools are interviewing a larger share of applicants than they used to, even as the applicant pool grew. EY2024's 61.6% interview rate is the highest in the dataset.

Yield is very high. In most completed years, 83–88% of accepted applicants matriculate. That is far higher than the national MD average and reflects the structure of the TMDSAS match system: the match binds accepted Texas applicants to a school, and a flat $230 fee covering all schools keeps Texans in-state. The one outlier is EY2019, where yield dropped to 69.8% (matriculation fell to 1,731). That single-year dip is visible in the data; we report it as-is without speculating on the cause.

The plain-text version, for quick reference: the TMDSAS acceptance rate has ranged from about 30.7% to 37.6% over the last decade, sitting around 34.6%–36.6% in the most recent completed years (EY2024 and EY2025). The matriculation rate (the share of all applicants who actually enroll) runs about 5–7 points lower, in the high-20s to low-30s percent.

TMDSAS acceptance rate by residency: Texas resident vs. non-resident

This is where most of the confusion online comes from, so it gets its own complete table. TMDSAS classifies every applicant as a Texas Resident, a Non Resident (out-of-state), or a tiny Exception category. Texas law reserves roughly 90% of seats at participating public medical schools for Texas residents, which makes residency the single biggest driver of your odds.

Source: TMDSAS stats dashboard; rates computed by GradPilot. The Exception category is tiny (1–4 applicants per year) and is kept in for completeness; we do not compute rates on single-digit groups. EY2026 is in progress.

Reconciling the out-of-state confusion (read this carefully)

Different sources — including, historically, some of our own older pages — quote wildly different out-of-state numbers: "about 18% of out-of-state applicants are accepted," "only about 2% of out-of-state applicants matriculate," and "7–8% of matriculants are out-of-state." People treat these as contradictory. They are not. They measure three different things, and all three are roughly true. Here is the canonical reconciliation, straight from the table above.

1. The non-resident acceptance rate is about 16–18%. In EY2024, 372 of 2,116 non-resident applicants were accepted = 17.6%. Across completed years it ranges from 13.5% (EY2021) to 17.9% (EY2020). This is an applicant-level rate: of everyone who applied as a non-resident, this share got at least one acceptance. When someone says "out-of-state applicants are accepted at ~18%," this is the number they mean, and it is correct.

2. The non-resident matriculation rate is far lower — about 8–10%. In EY2024, 200 of 2,116 non-residents matriculated = 9.5%. Why is this so much lower than the 17.6% acceptance rate? Because of the statutory ~10% non-resident cap on seats. Many non-residents who are accepted lose out in the match to higher-ranked Texas residents, or are accepted at one school but cannot all be seated within the cap. So the non-resident funnel narrows sharply between "accepted" and "matriculated." (Some older summaries say "~2% matriculate" — that figure conflates the small denominator with a different base or an early-cycle partial count. The clean, completed-year number is 8–10%, not 2%.)

3. Non-residents make up about 6–8% of the entering class. This is a matriculant-level share, a completely different ratio. In EY2024, 200 of the 2,871 total matriculants were non-resident = 7.0%. Across completed years this share is remarkably steady at 6.3%–7.7%. This is the number that reflects the cap from the class's point of view: out of every 100 people who actually start at a TMDSAS school, about 7 are out-of-state.

The core distinction is applicant-level vs. matriculant-level. "17.6% of non-resident applicants were accepted" and "7.0% of matriculants are non-resident" are both true at the same time because they have different denominators. Conflating them is the single most common error in TMDSAS out-of-state discussion.

The headline comparison, in plain text: in EY2024, Texas residents were accepted at 42.5% versus 17.6% for non-residents — a gap of about 25 percentage points. At the matriculation level the gap is even starker: 38.8% of resident applicants enrolled versus 9.5% of non-residents. That gap has held remarkably steady for a decade: resident acceptance has stayed in the high-30s to mid-40s percent while non-resident acceptance has stayed in the low-to-high teens. If you have no Texas ties, our deep dive on the TMDSAS out-of-state acceptance rate walks through whether applying is worth it given the ~16% non-resident rate and the seat cap.

If you are weighing an out-of-state TMDSAS application, the data does not say "don't" — hundreds of non-residents matriculate every year — but it does say go in clear-eyed about the cap. Our guide on how many Texas medical schools to apply to covers how to build a realistic list given these odds.

TMDSAS acceptance rate by applicant type: reapplicant, non-traditional, military

TMDSAS also flags three applicant characteristics. These tables show outcomes within each group — the acceptance and matriculation rates are computed against that group's own size (in-group), not the full applicant pool.

Three critical caveats before you read these tables:

1. The three flags are independent and non-exclusive. A single applicant can be a reapplicant and non-traditional and military all at once. Do not add these groups together — they overlap, and summing them would double- or triple-count people.
2. The non-traditional flag only exists from EY2020 onward. For EY2016–2019, the source records every applicant as "Traditional," so the non-traditional counts are 0. Those zeros are a source-data limitation, not real zeros — non-traditional applicants obviously existed before 2020; TMDSAS just did not track the flag. We omit those years from the non-traditional table rather than show misleading zeros.
3. EY2026 is in progress; in-group acceptances are partial and matriculations are 0.

Reapplicants

Reapplicants are a large, stable share of the pool — roughly 1 in 5 applicants every year. Their in-group acceptance rate (mid-20s to mid-30s%) runs a few points below the overall rate, but it has risen over the decade, peaking at 35.7% in EY2023. We dig into what drives reapplicant outcomes — and why the top-line gap is misleading — in our companion data piece on the TMDSAS reapplicant acceptance rate, and we cover essay strategy specifically in our TMDSAS reapplicant essay guide. For the national MD picture, see our medical school reapplicant data analysis.

Non-traditional applicants (EY2020 onward — flag not tracked before 2020)

Since the flag began in EY2020, non-traditional applicants have been accepted at roughly 25–29% in-group — a meaningful but not dramatic gap below the overall rate. Note this is not directly comparable to pre-2020 years, which simply lack the data.

Military applicants

The military cohort is small — around 150 applicants a year — so its rates swing year to year (anywhere from ~21% to ~37% accepted) simply because of the small denominator. Read these as directional, not precise.

Source for all three tables: TMDSAS stats dashboard; in-group rates computed by GradPilot. Flags are independent and must not be summed.

MCAT and GPA: how accepted applicants compare to the full pool

The dashboard also reports average MCAT and GPA by cohort: all applicants, accepted, and matriculated. This is the table to bookmark if you want to know where you stand. The MCAT total runs roughly 472–528; GPA is on a 4.0 scale; BCPM is the science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math) GPA.

Average MCAT total and GPA by cohort

The full year-by-year scores file (including all four MCAT section averages for every cohort) is in the open dataset. EY2026 accepted figures are partial.

What the score data shows, in plain text:

• Accepted applicants consistently outscore the full pool by about 5 MCAT points — roughly 512 accepted vs. 507 all-applicants in recent years — and by about 0.18–0.25 GPA points (≈3.82 accepted vs. ≈3.63 all-applicants in EY2024).
• The bar has crept upward over the decade. All-applicant average MCAT rose from 500.9 (EY2016) to about 506.6 (EY2025), and accepted-applicant GPA climbed from 3.68 (EY2016) to 3.84 (EY2025). Combined with the application-volume growth above, this is the quantitative signature of an increasingly competitive process. It is also the precise reason premeds feel it has gotten harder even though the headline rate barely moved — we untangle that paradox in our analysis of whether it is harder to get into Texas medical school now than a decade ago.
• Accepted and matriculated cohorts look nearly identical on stats — within a tenth of an MCAT point and a hundredth of a GPA point most years — which makes sense given the high yield.

A useful reference point: in EY2024, the average matriculant had about a 511.5 MCAT and a 3.82 overall GPA. That is not a cutoff — plenty of people below it get in, and stats are only one input — but it is the center of gravity for a competitive TMDSAS application. These averages still leave the real question unanswered: what is the actual acceptance rate for someone with your exact numbers? We crossed the two distributions to build the Texas medical school acceptance rate by GPA and MCAT grid, so you can read the odds for your specific GPA × MCAT band by residency instead of comparing yourself to a single average.

Full MCAT section averages

For completeness, here are the four MCAT section averages for the all-applicant cohort across all years (CPBS = Chem/Phys; CARS = Critical Analysis; BBFL = Bio/Biochem; PSBB = Psych/Soc):

Source: TMDSAS stats dashboard. Section averages are rounded to one decimal; CARS is consistently the lowest section average, a pattern that holds across every cohort and year.

Frequently asked questions

What is the TMDSAS acceptance rate? In the most recent completed cycle (Entry Year 2024), the overall TMDSAS acceptance rate was 36.6% (3,300 accepted of 9,005 applicants). Over the last decade it has ranged from about 30.7% to 37.6%, typically sitting in the mid-30s percent.

What is the TMDSAS acceptance rate for Texas residents? About 40–44% in recent completed years — 42.5% in EY2024 (2,927 accepted of 6,888 resident applicants).

What is the TMDSAS out-of-state (non-resident) acceptance rate? About 16–18% in recent completed years — 17.6% in EY2024. But far fewer non-residents matriculate (≈9.5%) because of the statutory ~10% non-resident seat cap, and non-residents end up as only about 7% of the entering class.

Why is the non-resident matriculation rate so much lower than the acceptance rate? Because Texas reserves roughly 90% of public medical-school seats for residents. Non-residents can be accepted at the ~17% rate, but the cap limits how many can actually be seated, so the funnel narrows sharply between acceptance and matriculation.

What MCAT and GPA do TMDSAS matriculants have? In EY2024, the average matriculant had about a 511.5 MCAT and a 3.82 overall GPA (3.76 science GPA). Accepted applicants average roughly 5 MCAT points and 0.2 GPA points above the full applicant pool.

Where this data comes from, and how to verify it

We believe admissions data should be open. TMDSAS's underlying figures are already public — they are just trapped in a format nobody can read, cite, or check. So this article exists to make them readable, and the dataset behind it exists to make them verifiable.

• Primary source (original): the TMDSAS stats dashboard. Every count here traces back to it.
• Our open dataset (reproducible): github.com/7hacker/tmdsas-admissions-data — clean CSVs, a data dictionary, and the extraction methodology. Verify the numbers yourself. The applicant totals match the live dashboard exactly for every year.

Data as of Entry Year 2026 (latest); extracted May 2026. This is an independent reproduction and is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by TMDSAS. Entry Year 2026 is in progress and its rates are not final. All rates (acceptance, interview, matriculation, yield, in-group, and matriculant-share) were computed by GradPilot from the published counts using the definitions stated above.

Turning data into a decision

Numbers set the context, but they do not write your application. The TMDSAS data above tells you the process is competitive and getting more so, that residency is the dominant factor, and that accepted applicants cluster around a 511–512 MCAT and a 3.8+ GPA. What it cannot tell you is how to make your file stand out among thousands of applicants with similar stats.

That is where your essays do the work. Texas schools rank you on far more than your MCAT — your TMDSAS personal statement, Personal Characteristics Essay, and Optional Essay are where a competitive-but-not-exceptional applicant becomes a memorable one, and where a reapplicant proves they have genuinely grown. And because the TMDSAS match ranks you against a fixed pool, every point of differentiation in your essays moves you up someone's list.

GradPilot helps you write TMDSAS essays that are strategically differentiated, written in your voice, and aligned with what Texas medical schools actually rank applicants on — so the data above works in your favor instead of against you.