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How To Use AMCAS To Apply To Medical School
Aspiring physicians who dream of attending a U.S. Medical school should know that getting an acceptance letter from one of these institutions is not an easy feat. In the 2017-2018 school year, the average medical school acceptance rate among the ranked institutions that submitted admissions data to U.S. News was 7 percent.
Medical school hopefuls who are filling out their American Medical College Application Service forms, commonly known as AMCAS applications, should be thoughtful about what information and anecdotes they choose to share in these documents, experts say.
What Is the AMCAS?
AMCAS is a centralized medical school application system designed by the Association of American Medical Colleges, a nonprofit coalition of U.S. Medical schools and teaching hospitals, which allows students to simultaneously apply to multiple medical schools. The AMCAS is solely available to first-year medical school applicants, so transfer applicants would need to reach out directly to the school they are interested in attending, rather than applying through AMCAS.
Some U.S. Medical schools do not accept AMCAS applications. Osteopathic medical schools typically ask prospective students to apply via the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service, commonly known as the AACOMAS. In addition, public medical schools based in Texas typically require students to submit their admissions materials via the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service.
[Read: 2 Medical School Essays That Admissions Officers Loved.]
Because the AMCAS is often a pivotal factor in medical school admissions decisions, here is a guide on what the AMCAS application includes and how to compile an effective AMCAS application.
Overview of the AMCAS
An AMCAS application has nine parts.
The first three sections of the AMCAS involve providing basic background information. In section one, the student is asked to provide his or her name, birth date and other identifying information. In section two, he or she must provide information about schools attended, including every single postsecondary institution. Finally, in section three, students must answer biographical questions, including questions about citizenship status, criminal history, languages spoken and military service.
The fourth section of the AMCAS requires students to give a detailed account of what postsecondary courses they have taken and what grades they have received in those courses, including any withdrawals or incompletes, which are used to calculate an official grade point average.
[Read: 7 Tips for Completing the AMCAS Experience Section.]
In the fifth section, a student will describe his or her jobs and extracurricular activities and highlight the three most meaningful experiences. This is the portion of the application where a student can mention awards, honors or publications.
In the sixth section, students will identify the people who will be writing their letters of recommendation, and in the seventh section, students name the medical schools where they plan to send their application.
The eighth section is the essay portion of the application. The way someone fills out this section depends on whether he or she is applying to an M.D. Program or an M.D.-Ph.D. Program. All AMCAS applicants must write a personal essay, but M.D.-Ph.D. Applicants are required to write two additional essays, one of which explains their rationale for choosing an M.D.-Ph.D. Program as opposed to an M.D. Program and another which describes their academic research.
The last AMCAS application section is where students must provide their MCAT scores. Any scores earned since 2003 must be included, unless those scores were voided at the time of the test. Students who are applying to a dual-degree program, which combines a traditional M.D. Degree with another type of graduate degree such as a law degree or MBA degree, may be required to submit results from graduate school entrance exams like the GMAT, GRE, MAT or LSAT.
How to Time Your AMCAS Application for Success
AMCAS deadlines vary depending on the medical schools where a student applies. Among the 144 medical schools that accept AMCAS applications, deadlines generally range between Oct. 15 to Dec. 1.
However, medical school admissions experts say prospective students who submit AMCAS applications in the summer have a significant edge over students who apply later, because there are more interview spots available for summer applicants.
Dr. Anam Tariq, a nephrology fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who chairs the student and resident committee of the Islamic Medical Association of North America, says medical school hopefuls should begin their AMCAS application as soon as possible and allow plenty of time to work on it. Tariq warns that the application process can be very time-consuming, not only for the applicant, but also for those writing recommendation letters and submitting other materials on the applicant's behalf, so it's best not to attempt to finish at the last minute.
"It's a giant portfolio, showing how incredible you are and why you are applying to these particular medical schools," she says. "You don't want to sell yourself short."
Creating a Unique and Interesting AMCAS Application
Medical school admissions experts say there are three places in the AMCAS application where a student can convey his or her personality: the work and activities section, recommendation letters and the personal comments essay.
Work and Activities Section
Admissions officers say they are more impressed with work and activities lists that describe a student's long-term commitments to his or her passions, as opposed to lists that include numerous short-term projects, such as brief service trips. The quality of a student's activities matters more than the number of activities, admissions officers suggest.
"I think applicants get so worried about saying that they've done everything that they forget to say what they're really good with and what they really value," says Dr. Flavia Nobay, an associate dean for admissions at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
However, Nobay says that sometimes students omit activities that ought to be on the activities list, such as jobs they have worked in order to put themselves through school.
"They won't put that down, and what a mistake that is, because it means so much," she says. "Medicine is hard work. Showing us that you work hard in your everyday life also matters, and that can be the value that you're showing us. It doesn't all have to be remarkable research or remarkable community service."
Admissions experts say it is perfectly fine to list a project in the work and activities section that is unrelated to medicine or health care. In fact, experts say that including a non-professionally relevant endeavor in this section helps a student convey that he or she is well-rounded and has interests outside of science.
Keith Baker, assistant dean for admissions at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, notes it is actually more impressive to him when a student has done community service work that is not related to the health care sector than health-related service work. When a premed student performs non-health community service, it suggests the student is not doing good deeds simply out of a desire to improve his or her resume, but rather because he or she genuinely cares about his or her community, he says.
Baker says hands-on volunteering experience, where students directly reach out to people in need, impress him much more than charity work that does not require direct contact with needy individuals, such as fundraising.
"I like to say that the more hands-on, direct experiences you can have with people who you are serving looks much better than working in a sterile environment and in an indirect fashion," he says.
Also, Baker suggests that when students state in their AMCAS application that they intend to participate in an activity that is relevant to medical school, those future plans will not significantly improve their candidacy.
"Their profile essentially stops in time once they submit their application, meaning that we will consider experiences that have transpired but we do not really hold much weight on experiences that have yet to take place," Baker warns. He says telling admissions officers that you are about to begin a health care job, such as a job as a medical scribe, is unlikely to boost your acceptance odds in a meaningful way.
Recommendation Letters
Less is sometimes more when it comes to recommendation letters, admissions officers say.
Baker says it is a mistake for students to request recommendation letters from people who do not know them well, and submitting more letters than is required is not necessarily better than submitting the minimum number of letters.
He urges students to focus on getting recommendation letters from the mentors who are their very strongest advocates, because lukewarm endorsements are worthless. "The more opportunities you give letter writers to say something awkward or not flattering about you, the more opportunity there is for you to not look good," he says.
Personal Comments Essay
Admissions officers say the personal essay someone includes in an AMCAS application should include a compelling argument for admission.
"You don't have to be a Nobel laureate or a Pulitzer Prize winner to put your personal statement together," Nobay says, "but it has to make sense and it has to answer the fundamental question of 'Why medicine, and why me in medicine?'"
Nobay says her school receives about 6,000 applications annually, so it's unlikely that someone would be admitted to her institution unless his or her application makes a positive impression.
Dry writing that doesn't convey personality makes it difficult to assess a student's core character traits and motivations, Nobay says. In addition to her role as an admissions dean, Nobay is also an associate professor of emergency medicine. "What it becomes is like a bullet-point list of a thousand pieces of data, and it becomes really hard to put a picture together," she says.
Medical school applicants should think about what makes them special and why they want to attend medical school before writing their AMCAS applications, she says.
[Read: What Late Medical School Applicants Need to Know.]
She encourages applicants to reflect on how they are unique from other medical school applicants and ask themselves the following questions: "Am I somebody who is super geared to community service? Am I someone who is super curious? Am I somebody who is really focused on working in disparities in health care?"
Application Mistakes to Avoid
One of the biggest mistakes medical school applicants make is trying so hard to appear perfect that they no longer seem human.
Baker says it is typical for medical school applicants to present themselves as "someone who is bulletproof, who has basically overcome very little and looks very good all the time." But Baker says this is a serious error, because he wants to see evidence that a medical school applicant is a compassionate and thoughtful person.
"I want to know you're a real person," he says. "I want a genuine snapshot of who you are, and that requires demonstrating vulnerability. I want to know that your journey to medicine has been transformative."
Being clear and specific is a fundamental component of an impressive AMCAS application, Baker says. "Two applicants that have exactly the same profile can present themselves in such a manner to look good or to look bad based upon either their carelessness or their thoroughness," Baker says.
"Applicants that have full transparency are the ones that end up getting the most traction," he says. "When there's red flags on applications, generally those red flags are associated with evasiveness and non-specificity."
Searching for a medical school? Get our complete rankings of Best Medical Schools.
Ilana Kowarski is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate schools. You can reach her via email at ikowarski@usnews.Com.
MD Application Process - Heersink School Of Medicine
AMCASMedical School applicants are required to apply through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). The AMCAS application cycle runs from June through December. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) processes and verifies the completion and submission of the AMCAS application, application fee and supporting documents before we review an applicant's file.
Candidates who meet our selection criteria will receive a secondary application and from those secondary applications, candidates will be selected for interviews.
Letters of RecommendationAll letters of recommendation must be submitted through the AMCAS Letters Service by using AMCAS Letter Writer Application, Interfolio, mail and/or VirtualEvals. Please ensure all your letters are submitted to AMCAS through one or more of the above mediums. Only letters submitted through this service will be included in your application for review by our admissions committee. Please note that there is a five letter maximum for this requirement.
We offer three options for fulfilling the letters requirement portion of our secondary application:
Committee Letter - Preferred OptionA committee letter is authored by a pre-health committee or pre-health advisor and intended to represent your institution's evaluation of you. A committee letter may or may not include additional letters written in support of your application. If you have committee letters from two different programs/schools, list one as your committee letter and include the other as an individual letter.
Letter PacketA packet or set of letters is assembled and distributed by your institution, often by the institution's career center. A letter packet may include a cover sheet from your pre-health committee or advisor; however, in contrast to a committee letter, a letter packet does not include an evaluative letter from your pre-health committee or advisor.
Three Individual LettersIndividual letters should include at least one letter from a faculty member (preferably a science faculty member) and two letters from other faculty or individuals who can provide in-depth evaluation and recommendation.
Secondary ApplicationSecondary Application invitations are sent out starting in early July of every application cycle. Once your initial application has been processed, you will be contacted and asked to submit the secondary application. Please refer to our Selection Criteria on who will receive a secondary application request.
InterviewInterviews allow you to meet with members of the Admissions Committee and give them a better understanding of your interests, experiences, motivation, and capacity to be a physician. Interviewers will have access to your AMCAS and secondary applications, but do not have access to your grades, MCAT scores, or letters of recommendation. Our goal with interviews is to conduct thoughtful and respectful evaluations.
UAB Heersink interviews are conducted virtually using an interview software called Kira Talent.
The interview day consists of one traditional one-on-one interview with an admissions committee member and a nine-station multiple-mini interview. In addition, interviewees have the opportunity to interact with current students through a student panel discussion.
Acceptance StatusOnce the UAB Heersink School of Medicine Admissions Committee makes a final decision, each applicant will be informed of acceptance electronically. Admissions decisions are made on a rolling basis starting Oct. 15. Applicants who have not received notice of a final decision are still under consideration.
Deferral PolicyAdmitted students who wish to request a deferral should submit the request as soon as possible and prior to April 30. The Admissions Committee grants one year Deferred Admission on a case-by-case basis.
Beginning in February, admitted students will be asked to participate in the AAMC's Choose Your Medical School Tool. Key dates include:
Prior to April 30You will be asked to designate your top choice school as "Plan to Enroll" and you can update this selection at any time. Medical schools will not see individual responses - just aggregate data.
You will need to withdraw acceptances from all but one medical school by April 30.
Beginning April 30If you know on April 30 (or any time between April 30 and three weeks prior to the start of class) that you will be attending the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, we ask that you designate us as "Commit to Enroll". In order to "Commit to Enroll," you should withdraw your application from any waitlists. If you would like to continue to be considered for other waitlists after April 30, we ask that you designate UAB as "Plan to Enroll."
By Three Weeks Prior to the Start of ClassIn order to hold a spot in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, you must "Commit to Enroll" three weeks prior to class start. This deadline is 21 days prior to orientation to allow anyone who might receive a new offer of admission time to prepare to start medical school.
Your Contact InformationAll applicants must maintain updated contact information with AMCAS throughout the entire application process. Your AMCAS contact information is our only source of contact information for you. We do not maintain a separate database of contact information.
Admissions TimelineMD University Program - Case Western Reserve ...
Primary Application Date Requirement May 1, 2025 AMCAS 2025-2026 application becomes available. June 27, 2025 Earliest date that medical schools will receive verified primary AMCAS applications. November 1, 2025 Latest filing date through AMCAS for consideration of primary AMCAS application for CWRU. July - November 1 Our Admissions Office receives verified AMCAS primary applications and electronically invites applicants to complete CWRU's Secondary Application. November 15, 2025Latest date for submitting the CWRU Medical Scientist Training Program secondary application.
Note that the MSTP's deadline for the completion of the secondary application is two weeks earlier than the deadline for the University Program or the College Program: Even if you decide to apply to the other programs in addition to the MSTP, you still must complete your entire application by November 15, 2025, at 11:59 p.M. (EST).
December 1, 2025 Deadline to submit the CWRU secondary application.The AMCAS verification processing can take up to 4-6 weeks from the time that your application and all required official transcripts are received at AMCAS, and can take significantly longer during peak processing times. Medical Schools do not receive your application until it is verified by AMCAS.
It is acceptable to have your letters sent to AMCAS before your completed Secondary Application is received by our office. However, your application will not be reviewed until you have submitted a completed secondary application and all Letters of Recommendation have been received by AMCAS.
Secondary Application Date Requirement July, 2025 Earliest date for submitting the CWRU secondary application. December 1, 2025 Latest date for submitting the CWRU secondary application. It is to your advantage to complete the secondary in a timely manner and not to wait until the deadline to submit the secondary application. August - December 1 Admissions receives and reviews completed applications. Qualified applicants are electronically invited to schedule an interview at CWRU. August - February Interviewing season. For Accepted Applicants Date Requirements April - July, 2026 Case Western Reserve may accept students placed on the alternate list. March, 2026 Accepted student weekend event for the applicants accepted to Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. February, March, April 2026 University Program and MSTP Open House events for accepted applicants May 1, 2026 Notify your program of your final decision regarding your intention to attend and release acceptances to other schools. Early-July, 2026 Classes begin! Please review the AAMC Recommendations for Applicants to understand your responsibilities in this portion of the matriculation process. Early-July, 2026 White Coat Ceremony, Severance HallCheck out our Acceptance Protocols page for important dates.
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