Loyola Stritch

Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine Maywood, IL · Private · MD

Average MCAT: 513
Average GPA: 3.86
Class size: 171 (14,000 applicants)
Tuition: $73,720 (per year)
Out-of-state applicants: Welcome

Deadlines

AMCAS deadline: Nov. 2, 2026
Secondary deadline: Dec. 11, 2026

Essays

Jesuit, Catholic mission (500 words)

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.

Discerning medicine (500 words)

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/caring profession? What experiences, conversations, and encounters have informed your decision to apply?

Social justice and service (500 words)

Social justice, in the Jesuit tradition, justice due to each person's inherent human dignity, is an essential dimension of education at SSOM. Describe an impactful experience working with and for under-resourced communities. Explain what you have learned about yourself through this service and/or what has hindered your efforts to serve others in these environments.

Feedback you disagreed with (500 words)

Describe a time you received feedback about your performance and disagreed with the feedback. What did you disagree with? How did you handle it?

Rigor and balance (500 words)

Medical education is characterized by long hours of study, a steady cadence of course exams, subjective and objective assessment of performance, licensing exams, and sometimes demanding and stressful educational contexts in the clinical environment. How has your chosen undergraduate course of study prepared you for the rigor and demands of the medical school curriculum? What additional skills have you learned as a pre-med student to help you balance your educational and personal responsibilities, including managing your time and relieving stress?

Optional: updates

Please indicate additional grades earned, amendments to your proposed coursework or graduation date, address changes, additions to your list of experiences, and anything else you feel we should know.

Optional: gaps or challenges (1,500 characters)

Please explain in more detail (in less than 1500 characters) anything that would help us understand any gaps or delays in your education, academic missteps, or personal challenges not listed elsewhere.

Optional: time out of school

If you have not been enrolled in coursework for over two years, please let us know what you have been doing since your coursework ended.

Optional: reapplicant

Have you applied to SSOM prior to this application? If so, please list the years of your previous application submissions to SSOM and tell us how your application has improved since your previous submission.

Editor's notes

Rolling admissions matter here. Interview invitations started July 28 and offers begin Oct. 15, 2026, but the secondary isn't due until Dec. 11. The FAQ says early submission improves your chance of an interview, so treat December as a backstop, not a target.
Stritch reads your MCAT closely for a school with no cutoff. It prefers 125+ in the two science sections on your most recent attempt, and first-attempt success is viewed favorably. If you're deciding whether to retest, weigh that.
The secondary is long: five required essays, each up to 500 words. Three of them turn on the Jesuit mission, service to the underserved and vocation. The Class of 2030 averaged 351 hours of medically based service and 368 of non-medical service, so your service record needs to show up in these essays.
One of your two interviewers won't see your scores or letters. Prepare for that conversation to be about you, your motivation and the mission, with nothing on paper to fall back on.