2025 Best Medicine Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Ranked #2 in popularity, medicine is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 21 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for medicine students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 4,798 doctor's degrees in medicine during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Medicine School for Your Doctor's Degree

The medicine doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality medicine program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on medicine students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other medicine students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt medicine students go into to obtain their doctor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized medicine related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for medicine students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Medicine Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Medicine Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Medicine in the Great Lakes Region

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for medicine students seeking a a doctor's degree.

10 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Doctorate in Medicine

1

Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI

463 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in medicine has to look into Michigan State University. Michigan State is a fairly large public university located in the city of East Lansing.More information about a doctorate in medicine from Michigan State University

2

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

163 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in medicine has to take a look at Northwestern University. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in medicine from Northwestern University

3

Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH

211 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat Case Western Reserve University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in medicine. Located in the city of Cleveland, Case Western is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in medicine from Case Western Reserve University

4

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI

156 Annual Graduates

University of Wisconsin - Madison is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in medicine. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Madison.More information about a doctorate in medicine from University of Wisconsin - Madison

5

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

162 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in medicine from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

6

Indiana University - Purdue University - Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN

359 Annual Graduates

IUPUI is a very large public university located in the city of Indianapolis.More information about a doctorate in medicine from Indiana University - Purdue University - Indianapolis

7

Ohio State University - Main Campus
Columbus, OH

198 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in medicine from Ohio State University - Main Campus

8

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

280 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in medicine from University of Illinois at Chicago

9

Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL

161 Annual Graduates

Loyola Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.More information about a doctorate in medicine from Loyola University Chicago

10

University of Cincinnati - Main Campus
Cincinnati, OH

167 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Cincinnati, UC is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in medicine from University of Cincinnati - Main Campus

Best Medicine Colleges by State

Explore the best medicine schools for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Illinois	153	1,344
Michigan	149	1,198
Ohio	144	1,329
Indiana	132	494
Wisconsin	108	419

View All Rankings >

Medicine Related Rankings by Major

Medicine is one of 34 different types of Health Professions programs to choose from.

Medicine Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Medicine	3,758
Osteopathic Medicine/Osteopathy	853
Podiatric Medicine/Podiatry	187

Most Popular Majors Related to Medicine

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	2,227
Nursing	2,185
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	2,002
Dentistry	1,011
Optometry	359
Communication Sciences	240
Medical Science	108
Public Health	99
Chiropractic	65
Other Health Professions	55

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.