By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 3, 2026
Six Idaho colleges with pre-med programs, what they cost, and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
Idaho has no public medical school. It buys seats for its students at medical schools in other states, and those arrangements are being argued over right now in the legislature. Both of those are covered after the table.
Scores are given by section rather than as a single total. Three of the six colleges below report no scores at all, including the largest university in the state.
Table of Contents
- Idaho Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
- Idaho Has No Public Medical School
- Idaho’s Medical Education Arrangements Are Under Review
- What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Idaho Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
| College | Reading & Writing | Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The College of Idaho | 540 to 650 | 530 to 630 | $50,542 | 1,041 | 49% |
| Northwest Nazarene University | 515 to 630 | 490 to 610 | $55,163 | 1,024 | 65% |
| University of Idaho | 500 to 630 | 490 to 600 | $23,738 | 7,747 | 76% |
| Boise State University | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | $28,224 | 17,674 | 87% |
| Idaho State University | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | $21,527 | 7,583 | Not reported |
| Lewis-Clark State College | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | $21,925 | 2,385 | 88% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks.
Half the table has no scores in it, and that limits what it can tell you. Boise State is the largest university in Idaho with 17,674 undergraduates and publishes no score data at all. Neither does Idaho State, and neither does Lewis-Clark State. A reader comparing the three schools that do report against the three that don’t is not comparing like with like.
The cost pattern is clearer. Northwest Nazarene at $55,163 and The College of Idaho at $50,542 cost approximately twice what Idaho State at $21,527 and the University of Idaho at $23,738 do.
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The College of Idaho
The College of Idaho is a private liberal arts college in Caldwell with 1,041 undergraduates, the smallest school on this page and the most selective by admit rate.
Reading & Writing 540 to 650, Math 530 to 630. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 650 and 630. Cost of attendance $50,542, with tuition and fees at $37,845. 1,041 undergraduates, 49% admitted.
Northwest Nazarene University
Northwest Nazarene University is a private Christian university in Nampa with 1,024 undergraduates and the highest cost of attendance on this page.
Reading & Writing 515 to 630, Math 490 to 610. The top quarter scored at or above 630 and 610. Cost of attendance $55,163, with tuition and fees at $40,794. 1,024 undergraduates, 65% admitted.
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho is the state’s land-grant university, in Moscow, with 7,747 undergraduates. It is also where Idaho students in the WWAMI medical programme spend their first two years, which is covered below.
Reading & Writing 500 to 630, Math 490 to 600. The top quarter scored at or above 630 and 600. Cost of attendance $23,738, with tuition and fees at $9,084 in-state and $28,320 out-of-state. 7,747 undergraduates, 76% admitted.
Boise State University
Boise State University is the largest university in Idaho with 17,674 undergraduates, more than twice the size of any other school here.
The university does not report SAT score data. Cost of attendance $28,224, with tuition and fees at $9,048 in-state and $27,788 out-of-state. 17,674 undergraduates, 87% admitted.
Idaho State University
Idaho State University is in Pocatello with 7,583 undergraduates and a substantial health sciences presence, including pharmacy and dental programmes. Its Meridian campus sits next to the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The university reports neither SAT score data nor an admit rate. Cost of attendance $21,527, with tuition and fees at $8,610 in-state and $27,720 out-of-state. 7,583 undergraduates.
This is the least expensive school on the page.
Lewis-Clark State College
Lewis-Clark State College is in Lewiston with 2,385 undergraduates.
The college does not report SAT score data. Cost of attendance $21,925, with tuition and fees at $7,610 in-state and $22,028 out-of-state. 2,385 undergraduates, 88% admitted.
Idaho Has No Public Medical School
Idaho pays for its students to attend medical school elsewhere. As of [DATE] there are three routes, and only one of them involves any classroom time inside Idaho.
WWAMI is the University of Washington’s regional medical programme, named for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Idaho has subsidised seats there since 1972 and currently funds approximately 40 a year. Idaho WWAMI students spend their first two years at the University of Idaho in Moscow before moving to Washington and to clinical sites across the region.
The University of Utah holds approximately 10 state-subsidised seats a year for Idaho students.
The Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine is in Meridian, next to Idaho State’s campus there. It is private and for-profit, has been teaching since 2018, and enrolls approximately 220 students a class of whom approximately 34 are Idaho residents. The state subsidises no seats there, so Idaho students pay full price.
The University of Idaho connection is the one that matters most when choosing where to do a degree. A student at Moscow is on the campus where the state’s largest medical pathway spends its first two years, which makes advising and contact with that programme easier than it would be elsewhere.
What the Three Routes Cost
Idaho’s own undergraduate medical education report gives average graduate debt without state subsidy at approximately $208,418 for WWAMI, $196,875 for the University of Utah and $227,072 for the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Those figures are eight years away from a high school senior reading this page, and almost nothing written for pre-med students shows them. They are worth knowing before the first tuition payment, not after the last one.
Verify the current numbers with the Idaho State Board of Education, since all of this is being reviewed.
Idaho's Medical Education Arrangements Are Under Review
Idaho’s legislature has been arguing about how to train doctors, and the position has moved more than once.
A 2025 law originally proposed cutting Idaho’s WWAMI seats. It was amended before passing, and the existing programme stayed intact. The same law funds approximately 30 additional medical school seats over three years and specifies that none of them may be at WWAMI, which leaves expanding the University of Utah partnership or buying seats at the osteopathic college in Meridian.
Separately, the State Board of Education has advanced a proposed undergraduate medical programme with the University of Utah. Under the proposal all students would be Idaho residents, classes and most clinical rotations would take place in Idaho, and students would sign a return-to-practice agreement committing to at least four years of medical practice in Idaho after residency, or repayment of the state’s investment.
None of that is settled, and we have no way of knowing which option Idaho will choose.
What it means practically is this. A student starting an undergraduate degree now will apply to medical school in four years, and the arrangements described above may look different by then. Check the current position with the Idaho State Board of Education before planning around any particular route.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Being below a school’s published range doesn’t disqualify anyone. A quarter of the students admitted to every school on this list that reports a range scored below its lower number.
Idaho is an unusual case. Three of the six colleges publish no score data, Boise State admits 87% of applicants and Lewis-Clark State 88%, so for in-state admission the score is doing less work here than in most states.
It does the ordinary amount of work on an out-of-state application, and Idaho students apply out of state in numbers. It also matters for merit scholarships, which use scores at most institutions.
The number worth aiming for is the upper end of a school’s range, the one the top quarter cleared, rather than the middle. The reasoning behind that is on what SAT score you need for college.
The gap is measurable and so is the work to close it. A 70 to 130 point improvement takes approximately 40 hours of effective studying, based on the students we’ve worked with since 2008, and a 130 to 250 point improvement takes approximately 80.
How to improve your SAT score covers the method, including how to work out which topics are actually costing you points. If you don’t have a recent score, a free diagnostic SAT gives you one, broken down by section and by topic.
How to Read These Score Ranges
very range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. The lower number is the 25th percentile and the upper number is the 75th, which means a quarter of admitted students scored at or above it.
Three Idaho schools report nothing. That is not the same as reporting a low range. It means there is no published figure to compare yourself against, and the rest of the application carries more weight.
Because most colleges are now test-optional, the ranges that are published describe only the students who chose to submit. Students with strong scores submit and students with weak ones don’t, so a published range sits higher than the range for everyone who was actually admitted. More on test-optional colleges.
Pre-Med Programs in Nearby States
Idaho students apply across state lines in numbers, and in this case one of the neighbours is already part of the medical pathway.
Utah appears here not only because it borders Idaho but because Idaho buys medical school seats at the University of Utah. Washington is where WWAMI students finish their degrees.
See pre-med colleges in Washington, pre-med colleges in Utah, and pre-med colleges in Montana.
For a fuller account of how WWAMI works, see pre-med colleges in Alaska, which covers the same programme from another member state.
Pre-Med Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for pre-med programs in every state.
See pre-med colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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