What is a good MCAT score for Texas medical schools (TMDSAS) in 2026?

You’re a Texas resident applying through TMDSAS and you need a number to aim at, not a national average. For Texas medical schools in the 2026 cycle, a good MCAT score ranges from roughly 504 at the newer regional and osteopathic programs to 517 or 518 at UT Southwestern and Baylor [verify], and the right target is the published median at the schools you actually want plus a point or two of margin. This article puts the published figures in one table, explains the Texas-resident rule that makes them reachable, and shows you how to turn the table into a target.

Everything in the table is marked for verification with its data year. Schools publish these figures on their own schedule and in their own formats, and some report accepted applicants rather than matriculants, so treat each one as a starting point to check, not a fact to plan around.

The short answer

The exam is scored from 472 to 528 with each of the four sections scored 118 to 132, per the AAMC (scoring details at students-residents.aamc.org). The national mean for matriculants in recent years has sat near 511 to 512 [verify, AAMC 2024-25].

Against that, Texas is wide. Two schools publish figures well above the national matriculant mean, a cluster sits a point or two above it, and several newer or regional programs sit at or below it. So “a good score for Texas” is really three different answers depending on which cluster you are aiming at, and the table sorts them.

The table

Figures below are the most recent published averages or medians we could locate for matriculants or accepted applicants, with the data year noted. Where a school’s own class profile was available, we used it; otherwise the figure comes from TMDSAS statistics or secondary summaries and should be checked against the school’s page.

Two notes on the roster. Baylor College of Medicine is private and has applied through TMDSAS since the 2022 entry year [verify]; TCU Burnett and UIW are also private and are not bound by the resident rule described below. The list of participating schools changes as new programs open, so confirm the current roster at TMDSAS before you build a school list.

Why “good” depends on residency

Texas law requires the state’s public medical schools to fill at least 90 percent of each entering class with Texas residents [verify]. That single rule shapes everything about what a good score means here.

For a Texas resident, it means you are competing for the large majority of seats against other Texas residents, and the medians in the table describe that pool. A 512 that would be ordinary nationally is competitive at most Texas public schools for a resident with a strong GPA and a complete file. For an out-of-state applicant, the same rule means the public schools have a handful of seats, the competition for them is intense, and the published median understates what it takes.

The private schools, Baylor, TCU Burnett and UIW, are not bound by the rule, but Baylor’s published figures are the highest in the state anyway, so the practical effect is the same: aim at the median, not at the floor.

Residency is determined by TMDSAS rules and measured against the application deadline, and the definition has edges that catch people, especially non-traditional applicants who moved for work or school. Read the residency section of the TMDSAS application guide before you assume anything.

How to read a median

A median is the middle of the admitted class, which means half the class scored below it. That is both comforting and misleading.

Comforting, because a score two points under a median is not disqualifying; people with that score are sitting in the class. Misleading, because the people below the median almost always have something else carrying the file: a high GPA, a research record, service, a compelling path, ties to the region a school serves. If your score is below the median and your GPA is also below the school’s median, you are asking the rest of the application to do a lot.

Ten-point ranges are more useful than single numbers when schools publish them. The spread between a school’s 10th and 90th percentile MCAT tells you how much the score can flex, and it is often wider at the regional schools with a mission focus than at the two schools at the top of the table.

The lesson is to read the median as a center, not a gate. Then set your target above it so that the score is the part of your file nobody has to explain.

Where the score matters less

The MCAT is one of several numbers and the Texas schools are explicit about weighing more than it. A few things move an application at a given score.

• GPA, and especially the science GPA trend. A rising trend over the last 60 hours is read generously at most TMDSAS schools, which matters for post-baccalaureate and career-change applicants.
• Ties to the school’s region. Several Texas schools have an explicit mission to serve their area, and an applicant from the Rio Grande Valley or East Texas is read differently at UTRGV or UT Tyler than one from Dallas with the same numbers.
• Clinical exposure and service that is sustained rather than collected. Hours over years beat hours over a summer.
• The interview, which in Texas includes multiple formats depending on the school. A 518 does not survive a poor interview, and a 510 often survives a very good one.
• Timing. TMDSAS schools begin extending offers in mid-October [verify], and a complete file submitted in May or June is read before one completed in September. A score that arrives in time is worth more than a slightly higher score that arrives late.

None of this means the score does not matter. It means the score buys you a reading, and the file does the rest.

Setting your target from the table

Here is the procedure we would walk through with you.

Pick your reach school and your two most likely schools. The reach is the school you would attend over any other if admitted; the likely schools are the ones where your GPA already sits at or above the published median.

Your target is the reach school’s published median plus one or two points. For a Texas resident aiming at UT Southwestern that is roughly 518 to 520 [verify]; for one aiming at McGovern it is about 514 to 515 [verify]; for one aiming at UT Tyler it is about 507 to 508 [verify]. The margin is there so that the score needs no explanation and so that a one-point swing on test day does not change your category.

Your floor is the lower of your two likely schools’ medians. If your full-length trend is at or above the floor and below the target, you apply broadly and keep working. If it is below the floor six weeks out, that is when you consider moving the date rather than taking a score you will have to explain.

Stop at the target. A pre-med aiming at a 514 school who keeps studying for 520 is spending months on points that will not change the outcome, and those months have a cost in GPA, in activities, and in application timing.

Retake math for Texas applicants

A retake decision in Texas has a timing component that out-of-state applicants do not face. The TMDSAS application opens in early May and closes in early October, and offers begin going out in mid-October [verify]. So a retake that pushes your score into August or September lands a complete file at the end of the review period, when fewer seats are left.

If your score is at or above the floor, apply with it and do not retake. If it is below the floor by three or more points, a retake is probably worth more than an early submission, and the question becomes whether to retake this cycle or wait a year. A score in hand by July with a retake in August is a workable middle path at many Texas schools [verify], but check how each school treats a pending retake, because policies differ.

Remember the AAMC’s limits: three attempts in a testing year, four across two consecutive years, seven in a lifetime. Voids count. Plan the retake once, properly, rather than twice quickly.

What to do this week

1. Confirm your Texas residency status under the TMDSAS definition, especially if you have moved in the last three years.
2. Pick one reach school and two likely schools from the table and open each school’s current class profile page. Write down the published MCAT and GPA figures and the data year.
3. Set your target (reach median plus one or two points) and your floor (lower likely-school median) and put them on an index card next to your desk.
4. Take or re-take an AAMC full-length under real conditions and write that score on the card. The gap between the card’s numbers is your study plan.
5. Check the TMDSAS deadlines for your cycle so that your test date leaves the score in hand before you submit.
6. If you want to be told when our MCAT program opens, join the waitlist. The table above is yours either way.