Graduation Rates by Entering Year
Overall graduation rates are the number of students that start out in medical school who then graduate at the end of six years. Although 89-95% of our students graduate within four years, many factors can impact a student not completing in four years. These may include an illness or injury that puts the student behind, academic failure, moving to a five-year program of study, suspension, withdrawal, or dismissal for integrity violations, etc. Des Moines University students have a very high graduation rate compared to many schools across the country.
| Entering Cohort | Graduation Rate |
| 2016-17 | 90.0%* |
| 2015-16 | 96.8%* |
| 2014-15 | 95.0%* |
| 2013-14 | 97.3% |
| 2012-13 | 96.4% |
*These classes include students still active in the program as of 1/26/2021. As they complete the program the graduation rate will increase.
Internship and Residency Match Rates
Matching to an internship or residency after medical school is very important. Although not every student decides to go on to a residency right away (some finish a master’s program or dual enrollment program, others volunteer for international missions, some do general medical officer duty in the military), the majority of the students enter the match in hopes of gaining a residency in the specialty they would like to pursue. There are far more applicants for residencies than there are residency spots. This makes the competition for graduate medical education (GME) fierce for some specialties. Des Moines University has had a high match rate, and this past year 97.1% of all graduates matched into an internship or residency.
| Match Rate Percentages | ||||||
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| DMU Overall | 100.0 (211/211) |
100.0 (210/210) |
100.0 (211/211) |
99.5 (206/207) |
99.5 (219/220) |
97.1 (206/212) |
| Military Match | 6.6 (14/211) |
7.1 (15/210) |
2.4 (5/211) |
4.8 (10/207) |
5.0 (11/220) |
2.8 (6/212) |
| AOA Match | 34.1 (72/211) |
42.4 (89/210) |
28.4 (60/211) |
14.9 (31/207) |
8.2 (18/220) |
N/A |
| ACGME Match | 59.3 (125/211) |
50.5 (106/210) |
69.2 (146/211) |
79.8 (165/207) |
86.4 (190/220) |
94.3 (200/212) |
Last updated June 2020
Board Pass Rates by Graduation Year
DMU pass rates on COMLEX board exams consistently exceed the national average. Board exam results provide an important measure of knowledge for review as part of the graduate medical education (residency) application process. Three-year averages represent the most recent three years of data.
| Graduation Year | Level 1 | Level 2-CE | Level 2-PE | Level 3 |
| 2015 | 95.3 92.0 NA |
94.2 92.6 NA |
92.6 92.1 NA |
97.3 96.5 NA |
| 2016 | 97.6 93.9 NA |
97.6 92.2 NA |
97.6 93.0 NA |
100.0 96.7 NA |
| 2017 | 97.7 92.3 NA |
96.3 93.2 NA |
96.7 92.9 NA |
98.4 95.4 NA |
| 2018 | 95.7 92.7 NA |
98.1 92.8 NA |
94.6 93.2 NA |
98.2 97.5 NA |
| 2019 | 99.6 96.0 NA |
99.1 95.6 NA |
95.6 93.2 NA |
98.2 97.0 NA |
| 2020 | 95.8 93.0 NA |
98.6 96.8 NA |
96.2 92.1 NA |
|
| 2021 | 97.6 94.3 NA |
99.0* 96.9 NA* |
||
| 2022 | 97.7* 94.2 NA* |
|||
| 3-Year Average** | 97.0 93.8 NA |
98.9 96.4 NA |
95.5 92.8 NA |
98.3 96.6 NA |
*Test cycle remains open for 2021 COMLEX Level 2CE and 2022 COMLEX Level 1.
**COMLEX Level 1 (2020-22), COMLEX Level 2-CE (2019-21), COMLEX Level 2-PE (2018-20) and COMLEX Level 3 (2017-19).
NA = National Average.
Last updated January 2021
Strategic Plans
Download the COM Strategic Plan or COM Research Strategy 2020