To accommodate applicants for the current admissions cycle who are facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will have an AMCAS application deadline of Nov. 1, and a Letters of Recommendation and Supplemental Application deadline of Nov. 15. 

Yes. Our Committee on Admissions will consider COVID-19–related disruptions as they review applications. We are aware of the numerous COVID-19 disruptions, including but not limited to the following:

• Canceled or delayed MCAT (first or repeat attempt)
• Mandatory grading adjustments (pass/fail in required prerequisite courses)
• Course cancellations/curriculum adjustments due to the pandemic
• Transition of in-person to online coursework
• Canceled or altered lab/research experience
• Canceled or altered clinical or professional development experiences
• Delay in research experiments/publications/presentations

The committee is prepared to review each candidate individually based on each candidate’s unique circumstances.

Yes. A question in our supplemental application will allow you to explain how you have been impacted by the global pandemic.

Opportunities to transfer into Feinberg are rare and limited to students in good standing at accredited allopathic U.S. or Canadian medical schools located in the U.S. or Canada. Successful transfer students will have a premedical academic record similar to that of the class they will be joining. Applications for transfer into the third year of medical studies, based on hardship, are considered.  

Potential transfer students, if they meet the above requirements for transfer, are advised to send our office a transfer request letter sometime in the fall/early winter preceding the year of desired transfer (preferably by March 1). Additional information will be provided by our office at that point. The request may be emailed to the MD Admissions office at med-admissions@northwestern.edu. Students who are not accepted for transfer will be notified by the end of April.  

Yes, Feinberg does accept international students. International students are encouraged to apply if they have completed at least three years of coursework at an accredited U.S. or Canadian college or university located in the United States or Canada. Exceptions may be made to this requirement for colleges or universities located in the British Isles (such as the U.K.) as well as Australia, through study at the undergraduate or graduate level or a combination of both degree levels. A bachelor's degree is required prior to matriculation. This policy applies to all applicants, regardless of their citizenship status. 

Learn more about the Application Process.

The entering class of 2020 included one international student from The Republic of Korea.

The entering class of 2019 included six international students. One each came from the following countries: Canada, China, Cuba, India, The Republic of Korea and Turkey. 

The entering class of 2018 included two international students: one from China, and one from Hong Kong.

The entering class of 2017 included three international students. One each came from the following countries: Brazil, The Republic of Korea and Mexico.

Upon receiving an offer of acceptance from the Feinberg School of Medicine, please login to our Secure Applicant website and enter your decision. Once you have entered your "accept" decision, we will reserve your seat in the incoming class.

Secure Applicant Website

All matriculants must submit a final official undergraduate transcript no later than by July 1, 2020.  

If you are unable to meet our deadline, please contact Jessica Voth at jav@northwestern.edu or 312-503-8206.

Please send your final official undergraduate transcript showing that you have received your bachelor’s degree, as well as any other final college transcripts which show additional coursework or programs completed. Please note that the transcripts that AMCAS requested from you at the beginning of the application process were used for their application verification only and were not forwarded to our office.

Transcripts may be submitted by email med-admissions@northwestern.edu (subject line should read: FINAL TRANSCRIPT: Applicant Last Name, First Name, AMCAS ID#).

If necessary, students may submit transcripts by mail, though email is preferred:

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Office of MD Admissions
310 E. Superior St. 
Morton Building 1-606
Chicago, IL  60611-3008

Your NetID is your electronic identity at Northwestern. The most common format of a NetID is a combination of three letters (often related to your name) and three or four numbers. Once activated, use your NetID to login to Northwestern email, the student portal (CAESAR) and to access your financial aid packet and/or award.

Accepted students receive NetID activation instructions via email during the month of March (please check your spam and junk mail boxes). If you haven't received your NetID activation email by April 15, please contact Jessica Voth at jav@northwestern.edu or 312-503-8206.

From the beginning of Phase 1 — the first 20 months of Feinberg’s medical school curriculum — all students spend one half day every other week learning and practicing clinical skills.

Find data about our current M1 class, including test scores, undergraduate performance and gender and ethnicity statistics via our Entering Class Profile page. 

At Feinberg, we value having a student body that mirrors our local diverse community. Furthermore, we find it equally important to students to grow personally and professionally during their medical training by branching out to learn about new cultures and backgrounds. At Feinberg, our students do hold common values and beliefs: to pursue their medical training and to be their personal best.  

Hear firsthand from students what makes Feinberg School of Medicine a unique environment.

Feinberg has more than 70 student groups that focus on such themes as identity, career goals, community involvement, performing arts and diversity. From the Student National Medical Association to In Vivo and the many medical specialty and service groups, these organizations represent our students’ diverse interests. Participation in these groups provides opportunities for personal growth, expression of creativity and development of leadership skills. Among other initiatives, students have launched and maintained free community clinics, trained together for the Chicago Marathon, learned how to salsa dance, visited the Illinois State Capitol to help influence policy-makers and tutored at-risk children.

Every year on one exciting day in March (usually around St. Patrick's Day), Match Day events are held at medical schools across the country. At approximately noon on this day, fourth-year medical students in the U.S. gather together to open their letters, finding out which residency program they were matched to through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) and where they will be doing the next phase of their medical training. 

Sixty-five percent of Feinberg students matched at the Top 25 U.S. News–ranked residency programs in 2019. The most popular specialties included Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Psychiatry, Obstetrics/Gynecology and General Surgery. While some students were set to move across the country for training, others would be staying within the state. The top destinations of the class were Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and Michigan. See more stats in Career Outcomes.

For the Feinberg celebration, we rent out the top floor of a local pizzeria near the school. Watch the Feinberg Match Day video to get a brief glimpse of the fun and excitement of the event.

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine embraces a broad definition of diversity that includes not only students from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in medicine, but also other religious, gender and sexual identities, persons with disabilities and socioeconomic diversity.

Twenty-two percent of the class of 2023 are from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups, which includes Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians. Feinberg also includes members of the LGBTQ+ community and students with disabilities as underrepresented in medicine. Learn more about the groups represented via our Entering Class Profile page and our MD Student Body Profile page. For more information, please contact the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at 312-503-4473 or email diversitymed@northwestern.edu.

At Feinberg, we value having a student body that mirrors our local diverse community. Furthermore, we find it equally important to students to grow personally and professionally during their medical training by branching out to learn about new cultures and backgrounds. At Feinberg, our students do hold common values and beliefs: to pursue their medical training and to be their personal best. 

Hear firsthand from students what makes the Feinberg School of Medicine a unique environment.

Our institution is deeply committed to creating a learning environment that reflects the diversity of our city. We integrate diversity initiatives throughout our teaching, research and clinical activities. Chicago offers an incredible backdrop for MD training. The size and cultural diversity of our city allows us to infuse cultural competency training into our students’ clinical experiences, including our clinics in Chinatown and on Devon.

Learn more about how Chicago plays a part in the MD Curriculum.

The Feinberg School of Medicine is welcoming to all groups from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Feinberg is home to the Northwestern Chicago Out Network, a social network of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Participants include students, faculty and staff from Northwestern schools and clinical affiliates on the Chicago campus. In addition, the student group Feinberg LGBTQ+ Alliance offers educational and other resources to students, faculty and staff. The group also provides information for prospective students.

The Feinberg School of Medicine has a modified rolling admissions process that utilizes a batched approach to sending acceptances. We interview candidates September through mid-February. Our pool of interviewees is very large, so many decisions are pending until after the interview season is completed. Some prospective students receive acceptances during the active interview season, the first acceptances being sent in November, but many of our slots are not committed until March. 

Each year, Feinberg receives about 7,000 applications for an entering class of 160.

The undergraduate median GPA for the 2020 entering class was 3.90, and the median score on the MCAT was 519.  There are no minimum MCAT or GPA scores required for entrance to Feinberg School of Medicine. Our admissions committee completes a holistic review, including the academic course load and rigor, academic honors, extracurricular activities, community service, clinical and research experience and letters of recommendation.

International students may apply for a private loan through a participating lender. Borrowers must have a co-signer who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, who resides in the country and is creditworthy. The co-signer must agree to repay the loan if you fail to do so. For more information please visit Student Financial Services site.

The mean education debt for Feinberg’s graduating Class of 2019 was $198,044. For reference, the graduating Class of 2019 national mean medical education debt was $215,005 for private schools.

Find out more on the Tuition and Financial Aid page.

Feinberg’s FAFSA school code is 001739.

Feinberg is located on the university’s 20-acre lakefront Chicago campus, along with four Feinberg-affiliated hospitals, Northwestern Law School and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management’s Executive Programs.

The admissions office is located at 310 E. Superior St., Chicago, IL, 60611, and the phone number is 312-503-8206. The admissions office can also be accessed from the Chicago Avenue entrance to the building.

Feinberg is located in the Streeterville neighborhood, home to a wide variety of high-rise residences, including rental apartment buildings where many of our medical students live. Within blocks of city buses and subways, the neighborhood is centrally located in the city, allowing easy public transportation access to the culture and diversity of the city and suburbs.

Lakefront beauty and a cosmopolitan, urban cityscape surround our campus, which is located between the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile of shopping, dining and entertainment venues. This is the heart of Chicago where students can choose among world-class cultural and recreational activities just steps from the medical school.

A number of important medical organizations are headquartered in Chicago, including the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, American College of Surgeons and professional academies, colleges, societies and boards of specialty fields. All these factors combine to make the medical school’s location one of the most desirable in the United States.

Most Feinberg students spend the majority of their days on campus and prefer to live within walking distance, particularly during their first years of medical school. A number of high-rise residential apartment buildings are within several blocks of the Chicago campus. Additional apartment choices in a wide range of locations, types and rents are available in other nearby Chicago neighborhoods. The Northwestern University financial aid allowance for housing is $1,200 per month. Learn more about Medical Student Housing and Financial Aid for Housing on the MD Education pages.