Part 1: Introduction
If you’re looking for an excellent medical program at a university that doesn’t have cut-off scores for tests, The Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago is worth a look. Stritch isn’t among the Ivy Leagues, which reduces the stress and pressure applicants will feel while applying. However, it still has an excellent medical program that will prepare you for a successful career.
The Stritch School of Medicine is a great school to balance out your applications. Requirements aren’t as high as Perelman or Georgetown, but Stritch still requires excellence from prospective students. If your best doesn’t quite reach Ivy League levels, but you’re still an excellent student, then Stritch might be perfect for you.
The Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University offers a diverse student body and multiple degree programs to choose from–all of which we’ll be looking at today. As you read through this article, you’ll also see admission statistics, program requirements and the essay questions that Stritch asks applicants. We’ll examine the essay questions to determine the best way to respond, as well as provide sample essays to help get your creative juices flowing. By the time you finish reading through this article and implementing what we teach you in to your application, you’ll be ready to impress the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago.
Part 2: Medical Programs at Loyola University Chicago
The Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago offers the standard MD degree to crown you a Doctor of Medicine. They also offer:
- MD/Ph.D. Program
- MD/Master of Public Health Program
- MD/Master of Art Bioethics Program
- MD/Master of Business Administration
MD Degree Program
The Stritch School of Medicine offers the standard, four-year medical degree program, but with a unique setup.
Instead of having Year One comprised of all the regular first-year courses together, Loyola University Chicago has students immerse themselves in one course at a time. Year One students study:
- Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
- Anatomy
- Physiology
- Immunology
Year Two students learn:
- Neuroscience
- Pharmacology
- Mechanisms of Human Disease
- Behavioral Science
Year Three students enroll in clerkships in:
- Medicine
- Surgery
- Psychiatry
- Neurology
- Pediatrics
- Family Medicine
- Obstetrician/Gynecology
Year Four students take two sub-internships. Both are in a hospital setting and require students to experience low-pressure and high-pressure situations. They’ll experience everything from a routine visit to a patient who is in cardiac arrest. Students will also take some elective courses toward the end of their schooling.
MD/Ph.D. Program
As the name suggests, students who apply to the MD/Ph.D. program want to become Doctors of Medicine and Doctors of Philosophy. Becoming a Doctor of Medicine will prepare students to treat a wide variety of medical problems. Doctors of Philosophy understand medicine on a more scientific scale. For more information on the MD/Ph.D. program, check out their brochure.
MD/Master of Public Health Program
To be accepted into this program, you’ll need acceptance into both the Stritch School of Medicine and the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health. This program is for students who want to become physician-researchers or physician-practitioners. These degrees go beautifully together. While your MD degree will help you effectively treat patients, your degree in Public Health will give you a broader understanding of how illness affects populations. This dual degree will prepare you to practice healthcare at multiple levels.
MD/Master of Art in Bioethics Program
As another dual-degree program that Loyola University Chicago offers, students complete the MA in Bioethics Program entirely online. Graduates of this program will be well-versed in the ethics related to various healthcare situations. For more information on this program, go here.
MD/Master of Business Administration Program
An MBA is an ideal degree to have along with your MD degree. Many MBAs are hospital presidents, so this degree might help you advance more quickly in your field. The MBA program teaches students how to run a business effectively. For more information, go here.
Cost of Tuition for The Stritch School of Medicine
Tuition at Stritch is tiered by year of study, which works in your favor as you progress. For 2025–2026, first- and second-year students pay $35,305 per semester ($70,610 per year), while third- and fourth-year students pay $23,536.67 per semester ($47,073 per year).
Budget for mandatory fees on top of tuition. Student health insurance runs $3,684 a year, and there are per-semester technology ($130) and fitness center ($188) fees plus a student development fee. First-years pay a one-time $735 medical equipment fee. Loyola notes that all tuition and fees are subject to change, so confirm current rates with the bursar before you budget.
Loyola University Chicago does have need-based and merit-based scholarships. They recommend submitting your FAFSA and applying for in-house scholarships.
Part 3: Class Statistics for The Stritch School of Medicine
- Class of 2029
- More than 13,000 applications
- 175 new students
These stats place Loyola University Chicago at approximately a 1.3 percent matriculation rate, Stritch remains one of the most heavily applied-to medical schools in the country.
For the Class of 2029:
- 3.7 mean undergraduate science GPA
- 3.8 mean overall undergraduate GPA
- 512 mean MCAT score
Loyola also publishes the makeup of the entering class: 62% women and 38% men, drawn from 29 states and territories and 87 undergraduate colleges, with 9% first-generation college students and 36 races and ethnicities represented. Fifteen students were born outside the United States, and the class ranges in age from 21 to 36.
Requirements for Getting In
To be considered for the Stritch School of Medicine, you need a bachelor’s degree. A higher level of education, such as a master’s or doctoral degree, will also be considered for admission. If you earned your degree (be it bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral) in a country other than the United States, you need to take a year of courses here before applying.
Regardless of what education you have received or are receiving, the following credits will need verification on your AMCAS application:
30 credits total, comprised of:
- Eight credits in Physiology, Biology or Biochemistry
- Eight credits in Chemistry, with three credits in Organic Chemistry
- One lab credit in Biology
- One lab credit in Chemistry
Stritch School of Medicine will accept up to 6 AP Credits.
Your Primary and Secondary Applications
There are two applications to submit as part of your medical school application process. They are known as your primary and secondary applications.
You’ll submit your primary application to the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). This application is time-consuming. You’ll need to fill out the following information in complete detail.
- Primary Application
- Background Information
- Coursework and Official Transcripts
- Work and Activities
- Letters of Evaluation
- Personal Statement
The good news is that, unlike your secondary application, you’ll only fill out and submit this application once. Every medical school which you’ll apply to has access to your AMCAS application.
You’ll submit your secondary application to each medical school to which you’re applying. The most vital part of all your secondary applications combined is the essay section. Some students enjoy this section if they like writing, while others dread it. This section is crucial because it allows your personality to show. While your personal statement, work and activities, and background information provide a lot of information about your work, they don’t say a whole lot about you. But don’t worry. When we reach the essay section of this guide, we will walk you through how to write each essay.
Timeframe for Your Application
While it’s vital to pay attention to deadlines, you should submit your applications as early as possible. Many universities, including Stritch School of Medicine, use a rolling admissions system. They receive applications, review them, call some applicants in for interviews and send out acceptance letters. They go through this process multiple times until they’ve considered all applications and sent acceptance letters to the students of their choice. So, the sooner you apply, the sooner you’ll know if you’re attending the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago.
The AMCAS application opens early in the summer, meaning you can submit it as early as June. In 2020, November 2nd was the deadline for submitting your primary application.
Stritch’s supplemental (or secondary) application opened on July 10th and closed on December 11th.
Stritch reviews on a rolling basis, with interview invitations issued from late July onward. Confirm the current cycle’s AMCAS and secondary deadlines directly with the admissions office before you plan your submission.
Part 4: Putting in Your Personality: Your Secondary Application
Stritch’s secondary questions for the 2026–2027 cycle. Each carries a 500-word limit, and Stritch explicitly asks that answers are not generated or enhanced by AI.
As you consider Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, please tell us what resonates with you regarding our mission as a Jesuit, Catholic medical school? Consider also what you may be curious about regarding our institutional mission and identity.
You do not need to be Catholic and Stritch is not asking you to be. The Jesuit tradition it is pointing at is care for the whole person and service to those with least access. Engage with that honestly, including the part you are still working out, because the question invites curiosity as well as agreement. A generic paragraph about service will not land here.
Sample answer
I am not Catholic, and I want to be straightforward about that, because the part of the Jesuit tradition that draws me is not doctrinal. It is the insistence on treating a person as a whole rather than as a presenting complaint. In my two years at a needle exchange, the useful conversations almost never started with drug use. They started with housing, or a job, or a daughter someone had not seen. What I am still working out is where the boundary sits between accompanying someone and directing them. Stritch seems to take that question seriously as a matter of formation rather than a matter of ethics coursework, and that is what I want to be trained inside.
Why it works: It engages honestly rather than performing agreement, grounds the mission in specific work, and takes up the invitation to name what the writer is still curious about. Admissions committees can tell the difference between this and a paragraph about service.
Considering all that you could do with your life, how have you discerned your decision to become a physician? What is particular to the practice of medicine and the vocation of a physician that draws you to apply to medical school versus another helping or caring profession?
Note the word discerned, which is deliberate. Stritch wants the reasoning, not the conclusion. The strongest answers explain why medicine specifically rather than nursing, physician assistant practice, public health or social work, and they do it through something the writer has actually seen rather than through an abstract preference.
Sample answer
For two years I assumed I would become a nurse practitioner, and I applied to one program before withdrawing. What changed my mind was watching an attending in our clinic sit with an uncertain diagnosis for three weeks, ordering carefully, revising twice, and explaining her reasoning each time to a patient who was frightened. The nurses I admired were extraordinary at care. What she was doing was different: holding responsibility for an unresolved question and not flinching from it. I want that specific burden. It is the part of medicine I have thought hardest about and the part I am least willing to give up.
Why it works: It answers the actual question, which is why medicine rather than an adjacent profession, and does so by naming a real alternative the writer seriously considered. The distinction it draws is precise rather than flattering.
Describe an impactful experience working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have learned about yourself through this service and what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.
The second half is the part applicants skip. Stritch is asking what got in your way, which means it wants evidence you noticed the limits of your own usefulness. Naming a real obstacle, whether that was language, trust, funding or your own inexperience, is stronger than a clean story of help delivered.
Stritch also asks optional questions about family connections to Loyola and about gaps in your application. Prompts can change mid-cycle and schools sometimes add questions after the application opens, so always write to the exact wording in your own secondary portal rather than to any published list.
Part 5: Your Interview at Loyola University Chicago
Stritch uses a traditional interview format rather than an MMI, and you will have two interviews, each up to 45 minutes. The first is a full-file interview conducted by a faculty member or a member of the admissions committee, they have read your application. The second is a partial-file interview conducted by faculty, admissions staff or a current medical student, who have seen only part of it.
That split is worth preparing for deliberately, because the two conversations need different things from you. In the full-file interview you can go deeper on what is already in your application. In the partial-file interview you cannot assume context, introduce your experiences rather than referring to them.
You choose the format. Applicants may take either an in-person or a virtual interview, and Stritch gives no advantage or special consideration to either. Invitations are issued on a rolling basis. Beyond the interviews themselves, the day includes an orientation and mission overview, student panels, campus and hospital tours (or a virtual equivalent), a financial aid session and a closing Q&A. Allow roughly four to six weeks after your interview for a status update, outcomes are an acceptance, continued consideration, or a final decision.
Stritch publishes a set of resources for applicants ahead of interview day. On their website, you can find the following information.
- Virtual campus tour
- Financial aid overview
- Doctor of Medicine application guide
- Interview process details
Stritch does everything they can to help you prepare for your virtual interview day. On your interview day, you’ll receive expanded information from the documents linked above.
The Stritch School of Medicine conducts interviews using the semi-closed file interview and the closed-filed interview formats. The semi-closed file interview means that the interviewer has limited access to your application information, which helps prevent bias and lets you make a good first impression. The closed-filed interview means that the interviewer has not seen your AMCAS or secondary application information.
Here at International Medical Aid, we offer interview practice sessions to calm your nerves and boost your confidence. We have multiple dates and times available, so preparing with us beforehand should easily fit into your schedule.
Conclusion
We wish you the best of luck with your medical school applications! We know it’s a lot to cover, which is why we recommend beginning your applications as soon as they are open. Don’t try writing all your essays in one day. That’s enough to exhaust anyone. We recommend writing one essay at a time, taking a break and then re-reading it and editing it with fresh eyes. It’s also good to ask someone else to read your essay for you, to catch any mistakes you might miss. Remember, Internationl Medical Aid is also here to help.
As you decide what schools to apply to, keep your eye on our blog, where we offer free guides to medical schools like Georgetown University School of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
We wish you well, no matter where you are on your journey. If you’re considering medical school for the first time, don’t let the lengthy process scare you away. Know that it will be well worth your time to become a doctor. If you’re applying to medical schools as we speak, remember to breathe. It’s not as hard as you think it is. You just have to get started.
Exploring Other Schools
Stritch is one of several medical schools in the Chicago area, and with a matriculation rate this low you should be applying broadly. These guides cover the other Illinois and Midwest programs worth considering alongside it:
- Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine
- University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
- Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center
- Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science
- University of Illinois College of Medicine
- Carle Illinois College of Medicine
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
- Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University
- Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine
