Top 10 Rural Medicine Graduate Schools in the U.S.

When your undergraduate degree is finished and you’re ready to move into a more specialized medical focus, finding the right graduate school can be difficult. With the growing need for highly trained medical staff in rural communities, it’s become even more important to find the right fit for your continued medical training. Below is a list of the top rural medicine grad school programs for 2015 admission as ranked by U.S. News, and each school also carries physician assistant programs.

1. Washington – Also considered the top family medicine grad program of 2014, UW has an extensive partnership with neighboring states so students can complete several clerkships for terrific, hands-on training.
2. New Mexico – Pulling in at #2 for rural medicine and #9 for family medicine, UNM has a great faculty-student ratio of 2:1, ensuring that every student has a wealth of human resources available to them.
3. North Dakota – Tied with UNM for 2nd, UND cracks this list after previously being unranked for research and primary care, making it a very up-and-coming, attractive site for continued medical education.
4. Minnesota – UM features over 20 research centers and offers specializations at two separate universities in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Duluth.
5. South Dakota – USD’s Sanford School of Medicine features a small student body of just over 200 and a 1.7:1 faculty-student ratio.
6. East Tennessee State – ETSU boasts a small but dedicated medical program with a 0.8:1 faculty-student ratio and fewer than 300 students.
7. North Carolina – Ranked as the #2 primary care school for 2014, UNC-Chapel Hill operates a variety of specialized centers numbering over 30 and offers intensive development programs for underprivileged students.
8. Wisconsin – Also ranked as the #9 primary care school, the University of Wisconsin at Madison sends its students all over the state for training and clinicals and partners with over 30 specialized research institutes.
9. Colorado at Denver – Ranking in at #13 for primary care, UC-Denver offers a very structured and supportive training program with four separate phases of study and over 40 specialized centers to continue medical training.
10. Nebraska – Also ranked #6 for primary care, Nebraska offers a great selection of enhanced educational paths for preventative medicine and underserved healthcare and partners with around 20 different organizations for specialty training.

Be sure to consider all angles of your choices when applying to or accepting admission to graduate school. Your continued medical education is more than just required courses and training. It should be an experience laden with networking, extracurricular activities, organization involvement and more. Best wishes!