San Diego has one MD school in AAMC's counts, UC San Diego School of Medicine, accredited by the LCME since 1968 and due its next full survey in 2025-26 (LCME). It drew 10,400 applications for 140 first-year places in 2025-26, about 74 per seat, the second-largest count among California's 13 MD schools after UCLA-Geffen's 12,474 (AAMC FACTS).
UC San Diego's own page for its incoming class of 2026 gives a funnel: 10,874 applicants, 973 interviews and 140 students, 76% of them California residents and 21 of them UC San Diego alumni (UC San Diego). That works out to about one interview for every eleven applicants and about seven interviews for every seat (UC San Diego).
Facts about San Diego
| School | City | LCME accreditation | Next full survey |
|---|
| University of California, San Diego School of Medicine | San Diego | Full, since 1968 | 2025-26 |
Accreditation: LCME directory.
- UC San Diego School of Medicine reports that its incoming class of 2026 averaged 514.6 on the MCAT, with average undergraduate and science GPAs of 3.86 and 3.82. (UC San Diego School of Medicine)
- For that class, UC San Diego reports 10,874 applicants, 973 interviews and 140 students matriculated; 76% are California residents and 21 are UC San Diego alumni. (UC San Diego School of Medicine)
- For the 2026-2027 admissions cycle (entering class of fall 2027), UC San Diego accepts MCAT scores from January 2023 through December 2026 and will not consider scores from early 2027. (UC San Diego School of Medicine)
- UC San Diego invites no one to submit a secondary application without an MCAT score, then hides the score from the screeners who decide interviews. (UC San Diego School of Medicine)
- UC San Diego interviews in the Multiple Mini Interview format: 8 stations, each with 2 minutes to read a written vignette and 8 minutes discussing it with a member of the admissions committee. (UC San Diego School of Medicine)
- UC San Diego considers AMCAS applications submitted by October 15, grants no extensions and makes no offers of acceptance before October 15. (UC San Diego School of Medicine)
Sources: LCME, directory of accredited U.S. programs (checked October 29, 2026); AAMC FACTS, Table A-1, 2025-2026 (checked October 29, 2026); UC San Diego School of Medicine, By the Numbers (checked October 29, 2026); UC San Diego School of Medicine, Application Process (checked November 1, 2026).
UC San Diego's MCAT window for the fall 2027 class
For the 2026-2027 admissions cycle, the class entering in fall 2027, UC San Diego takes MCAT scores from January 2023 through December 2026 and will not consider a score from early 2027 (UC San Diego application process). An applicant whose only scores predate 2023 can ask for an exception case by case, which is not something to plan around.
Two more rules tie the test date to the calendar. UC San Diego invites no one to submit a secondary application until an MCAT score is available, and it considers only AMCAS applications submitted by October 15, with no extensions (UC San Diego application process). A sitting late in 2026 is still inside the window, but it holds the secondary back until the score arrives.
The score's place in the review is unusual too. Once the secondary is in, UC San Diego hides the MCAT from the screeners who decide interview invitations, so that decision rests on the rest of the file (UC San Diego application process). That does not make the exam a formality: the incoming class of 2026 still averaged 514.6 (UC San Diego).
The interview day and when offers come
UC San Diego interviews in the Multiple Mini Interview format. Applicants rotate through 8 stations; at each one they get 2 minutes to read a written vignette, which may be a problem, an ethical dilemma or a patient case, then spend 8 minutes discussing it with a member of the admissions committee (UC San Diego application process).
No offers of acceptance go out before October 15, and the school says applying later in its cycle has never hurt an applicant there: its rolling admissions spread a small number of offers through the year rather than filling the class in the autumn (UC San Diego application process).
We plan San Diego students' MCAT backward from those dates: a first test date that leaves room for a retake inside the January 2023 to December 2026 window, a score in hand before the secondary invitation matters, and extra weeks on CARS, the lowest-scoring section for California applicants and new students alike (AAMC FACTS).
Medical schools in and around San Diego
| School | Degree | 2025-26 applications | Applicants from California | New students | New students from California | Women |
|---|
| UC San Diego | MD | 10,400 | 53.6% | 140 | 74.3% | 63.6% |
Total for the one San Diego-area MD school: 10,400 applications, 140 first-year seats, 74 per seat (AAMC 2025 FACTS, Table A-1, AAMC short names).
California-wide AAMC figures (every California MD school, where California applicants started, their MCAT averages and ten years of applicants) are on our Los Angeles MCAT page.
What MCAT score San Diego applicants need
UC San Diego's own figures put its incoming class of 2026 at a 514.6 average MCAT, with average GPAs of 3.86 undergraduate and 3.82 in the sciences (UC San Diego). That is 6.4 points above the average California applicant (508.2) and 0.7 above the average California new student (513.9) (AAMC FACTS, Tables A-19 and A-20).
On AAMC's national grid, pooled over 2023-24 to 2025-26, a 514-517 MCAT with a GPA above 3.79 was accepted 77.2% of the time, against 45.4% for the average California applicant's spot (506-509 with a 3.60-3.79 GPA), a gap of 31.8 points (AAMC FACTS, Table A-23). The grid is not UC San Diego's own acceptance rate. California's new-student average of 513.9 is 1.8 above the national 512.1, so applying at home means meeting a bar at or above the national one (AAMC FACTS, Tables A-16 and A-20).
National AAMC grids (acceptance by MCAT and GPA, six years of averages): MCAT tutoring by city.
How many people in San Diego search for MCAT tutoring
Of 209 US metro areas, San Diego CA comes 15th on Google Trends for the share of searches about the MCAT over five years, scoring 25 of 100 (retrieved October 2026). Searches that name the city stay rare: Semrush puts “mcat tutor san diego” at 20 US searches a month, next to 1,600 for “mcat tutor” on its own (October 2026).
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