So, your child wants to be a doctor. Together with what’s sure to be immense pride, you probably have a number of questions.
How hard is it to be accepted to medical school? How many steps are involved in the application process? How can you set your child up for success? How much does it cost?
In this guide for parents, we break down the medical school application process, from the application timeline to what’s involved in the primary and secondary applications to interviews to what your child should be working on when.
Medical School Application Timeline
To apply to medical school, your child needs a college degree. This can be in any subject, but certain prerequisites are required.
While the exact premed requirements and prerequisites vary from medical school to medical school, most require two semesters of biology with lab, two semesters of general chemistry with lab, two semesters of organic chemistry with lab, and two semesters of physics with lab. Most also include a year of English and at least a semester of math, though it could be either calculus or statistics.
Many components come together to make a medical school application. But by far, the most important thing to understand about applying to medical school is the need to apply early—as soon as applications open. Do not follow the technical deadlines outlined by a school, as they are deeply misleading.
This is due to rolling admissions. Admissions committees do not wait until they have received every application before they start to make decisions. They review applications as they receive them on a continuous (i.e., rolling) basis. The first students to apply are the first to receive secondary applications. The first to submit their secondaries receive the first interview invitations, and the first applicants to interview receive the first acceptances.
We cannot stress this enough: Applying early is one of the most essential medical school admission strategies.
View our complete breakdown of the Medical School Application Timeline and Monthly Schedule.
Primary Application
The American Medical College Admission Service (AMCAS) application typically opens during the first week of May for the following year’s medical school class. This means applicants have about a month to prepare the application, as AMCAS submissions don’t open until the end of May or early June. For example, if your child wants to begin medical school in the fall of 2026, they’ll need to start the application process in the spring of 2025.
The primary application consists of several elements:
- A strong GPA and MCAT score
- Personal statement
- Letters of Recommendation
- Work and Activities (Extracurriculars)
We’ll break down what each of these elements entail later in the article.
Applicants only need to submit one set of application materials to AMCAS, and the service will distribute them to as many schools as the applicant wants. We recommend applying to 20 medical schools, a combination of reach, target, and safety schools.
Learn more: How to Get Into Medical School: The Application Process.
AMCAS is the main application service for most allopathic (MD) medical schools in the US; however, the majority of medical schools in Texas use their own application service—the Texas Medical and Dental School Application Service (TMDSAS). And if your child is thinking of applying to osteopathic (DO) schools, osteopaths have their own service, called the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service, or AACOMAS.
Learn more about the differences between these services with our guide: AMCAS vs. AACOMAS vs. TMDSAS Med School Applications.
Secondary Application
Applicants typically receive a secondary application within two to four weeks of submitting their primary application. Secondaries should be completed within 14 days of receiving them. This means applicants need to prepare well in advance to ensure they are able to submit a quality response within such a short turnaround window.
Unlike the primary application, secondaries are submitted directly to the schools the applicant receives them from. Also unlike the primary, each medical school has a unique secondary application that asks a few targeted questions. While the exact number and wording of the questions will vary depending on the school, admissions committees are generally looking for responses to these themes:
- “Why this school?”
- “Why are you the perfect fit for this school in particular?”
- “What makes you unique?”
Some secondaries are made up of several short essay questions and some ask for a longer essay. In general, applicants should expect to answer between two to eight essay questions, the length of which will vary greatly.
We created a free Secondary Essay Prompts Database that is continuously updated. It includes the most recent information about the secondary requirements for a wide range of specific medical schools in the US, including essay prompts, fees, Casper requirements, whether they screen applications, and much more.
Also, check out our comprehensive Medical School Secondary Application Guide.
Interviews
Interviews are the final step in the admissions process. Interview invites could start to arrive as early as August and will continue into the spring of the following year. Securing an interview means your child has thoroughly impressed an admissions committee on paper. Now they want to meet in person to better determine if the applicant is the kind of student they’re looking for.
While some interviews could be conducted virtually, the vast majority of interviews will take place on campus, which means, depending on the strength of their application, your child could be doing a fair amount of traveling during interview season.
Just like with secondaries, there are a number of common questions applicants can expect to be asked during their interview. Applicants should prepare foundational, flexible answers to these questions in advance and practice answering in front of a mirror or on camera so they can watch it back and better evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
One of the best ways (if not the best) to prepare for interviews is through mock interviews, which are practice interviews conducted by experts in the interview process who will interview an applicant and then provide objective, constructive feedback about their strengths and weaknesses.
Med School Insiders offers mock interviews with advisors who have served on medical school admissions committees and interviewed hundreds of med school applicants. Our advisors have seen it all, from standard to MMI to open to closed file, and we’ll recreate each kind of situation your child could face on the big day so that they are as prepared as possible.
For a thorough overview of the interview process, read our complete Medical School Interview Guide.
Admission Decisions
Medical schools start sending acceptance letters mid-October. Your child may be contacted at any point after that, so early applicants may receive acceptances in late October.
Applicants can hold multiple acceptances until the end of April, when they are required to choose one acceptance offer.
Another important consideration is the waitlist. Some schools may respond after an interview stating that the applicant has not been accepted but placed on the waitlist instead. While not ideal, making it onto a waitlist can still lead to a positive outcome. Waitlist acceptances can happen at any point during the application season, though they’ll likely occur late. Since students have to settle on one school at the end of April, it’s likely for waitlisted students to receive an acceptance offer after this time.
Read our 7 strategies for How to Get Off Medical School Waitlists.
Breaking Down the Primary Application
Getting into medical school is no mean feat. It’s not a simple matter of getting good grades—although that’s a key aspect. There are several different components of a medical school primary application.
Stellar Grades – GPA
To start, in order to be a competitive applicant, you need good grades. Most medical schools strongly suggest a minimum GPA of 3.0, but gaining admission with such a low GPA would be highly unlikely. To be competitive, students must shoot for substantially higher—those who matriculate to medical school have an average GPA of 3.77.
Good grades don’t only show intellect, they also demonstrate a strong work ethic—both essential elements of a promising premed.
MCAT
On top of stellar grades, premeds also need to take the MCAT and gain a strong score.
The Medical College Admission Test is a mammoth 7.5-hour standardized exam for premeds designed to evaluate foundational science knowledge and critical thinking skills. It’s regarded as one of the most challenging standardized tests out there. For example, the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), widely regarded as a very difficult test, only takes approximately 3 hours to complete. But the marathon length of the test is far from the only challenging factor.
The MCAT is split up into 4 sections, each worth 132 for a total perfect MCAT score of 528.
- Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems (Chem/Phys)
- Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS)
- Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems (Bio/BioChem)
- Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior (Psych/Soc)
Most schools have an MCAT cutoff score of 500, but just like with the GPA, in order to be competitive, you need a much stronger score than 500. Students who matriculate to medical school have an average MCAT score of 511.7.
Achieving that score or higher requires significant hours of studying, preparation, and practice. We recommend three months of full-time studying (40-50 hours a week) or six months of part-time studying (12-25 hours a week.)
If your child is planning on going to medical school immediately after college, we recommend taking the MCAT during the summer after their sophomore year. If they plan to take a year off after college, they should take the MCAT during the summer between their junior and senior years.
It’s a good idea for your child to schedule their MCAT when they don’t have other academic obligations, as there is evidence that students who do not have other scholastic responsibilities while preparing for the MCAT perform better on the test.
Learn more with our comprehensive MCAT Study Guide — Everything You Need to Prepare.
Personal Statement
A personal statement is essentially an essay response to the question: “Why do you want to be a doctor?”
The personal statement is the time for your child to let their personality shine. Medical school admissions committees want to get to know the person behind the grades and achievements. They want to know they’re accepting someone who intimately understands what it takes to be a doctor and has the passion, drive, and maturity to face the day-and-night grind of medical school.
What event or person in their past crystalized their ambition to pursue medicine? When did they know medicine was the only path for them?
The tricky part is staying concise, as they are only allotted a 5,300 character maximum, which is about 1.5 pages of single-spaced 12-point Times New Roman font. That’s not much space once you get started.
We like to think about the personal statement as a superhero origin story. For example, Peter Parker would not have become Spider-Man without being inspired by his Uncle Ben and his murder at the hands of a criminal. The same goes for Bruce Wayne, who would not have become The Batman if he didn’t lose his parents at a young age. While it likely won’t be quite as dramatic as these examples, it’s important for your child to elaborate on an ‘aha’ moment or someone in their past who inspired them.
Learn more with our guide: How to Write a Medical School Personal Statement (11 Steps).
Letters of Recommendation
Letters of recommendation are impartial summaries of your child’s unique skills written by qualified professionals, such as mentors, professors, and physicians, who have taught or worked with your child in the past. Since they are written by professionals, they have a big impact on admissions committees.
Although applicants can submit up to 10, we recommend securing a total of four to five letters of recommendation. Three of these must be academic letters written by undergraduate professors—two science and one non-science. The two remaining letters should be written by extracurricular supervisors, typically research and clinical experience.
We recommend four or five because the name of the game is quality over quantity. It is imperative that the letters strongly advocate for your child’s skills and character, as a bland or lukewarm letter can completely derail an application.
Learn more with our comprehensive Medical School Letters of Recommendation Guide.
Extracurriculars
The Work and Activities section of the medical school application summarizes the wide range of extracurricular activities your child participated in during their time in college. Applicants can select 15 premed experiences, ranging from extracurricular activities, volunteering experiences, employment, honors, and more. They then have the opportunity to discuss how those experiences shaped their desire to become a physician.
Admissions committees are primarily looking for experience in three key areas:
- Clinical exposure
- Research
- Community involvement/volunteering
Applicants do not need to have an even amount of experience across each area, but they must have some exposure to each, as this demonstrates the applicant has the kind of well-rounded experience and relevant interests needed to know whether or not they truly want to pursue medicine.
The Work and Activities section, along with the personal statement, gives admissions committees insight into where your child’s passions lie, as well as if those passions and values align with those of the school.
Learn more: 2024 AMCAS Work and Activities Section Guide (Extracurriculars).
How Long Does It Take to Become a Doctor?
Another essential thing to know is just how long it takes to become a licensed doctor.
Medical school lasts 4 years. Generally speaking, the first 2 years are preclinical and focus more on classroom work and lecture. The second 2 years are clinical, involving clinical rotations, also known as clerkships, where students rotate through different medical specialties and learn practical skills under the supervision of residents and attending physicians in a hospital.
After medical school, there are 3-7 years of residency, depending on your child’s chosen specialty—plastic surgery, pediatrics, or family medicine, for example. This brings the total to 7-11 years to become a doctor after college.
Additionally, your child may choose to further specialize with a fellowship. This can take anywhere from 1-3 years, bringing the total to 8-14 years.
The college degree that your child needs in order to apply to medical school also adds on another four years of schooling before med school, for a total of up to 12 to 18 years after high school.
This also does not factor in any breaks or gap years your child may want to take. There are BS/MD programs that combine college and medical school to reduce the time it takes to become a doctor by 1-2 years. Learn more about the pros and cons of the BS/MD option.
How Much Does Medical School Cost?
Tuition
Now the question on every parent’s mind: How much does medical school cost?
As you likely already know, medical school costs a tremendous amount of money. While some schools are certainly more expensive than others, the average yearly cost of medical school tuition.) is nearly $60,000. Tuition at public schools cheaper for in-state applicants.
And parents, brace yourselves: Most medical students graduate with over $250,000 in debt. By the time they make it to residency, while they will be earning a salary, resident physicians are paid peanuts compared to licensed professionals. Typically, residents are paid in the high $50,000s or high $60,000s per year, depending on their specialty—nowhere near six figures. This means it will take a long time to pay down that debt.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
One of the key things to consider is if your child is an in-state or out-of-state applicant. Many state schools have a strong preference for in-state applicants, and these students also receive reduced tuition.
For example, UCLA School of Medicine (Geffen) in California charges $36,585 a year for in-state students and $48,830 for out-of-state students. The Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine charges $31,830 a year for in-state students and $67,972 for out-of-state students.
Not every state will offer such a dramatic difference, but if the cost of medical school is something your family is concerned about, many state schools offer a strong financial incentive.
However, private medical schools typically charge the same amount of tuition for in-state and out-of-state applicants. For example, Stanford University School of Medicine charges $64,901 a year for all first year students, and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee charges $68,530 for all first year students.
It all depends on where your child most wants to attend medical school and how likely they are to receive scholarships. This is part of the reason it’s so important to start thinking about medical school as early as possible. Aside from saving money and budgeting, how can your child excel scholastically in order to earn a game changing scholarship?
To compare and contrast the tuition rates of every allopathic (MD) medical school in the US and Canada, use the Medical School Admissions Requirements database—MSAR. Not sure how? Check out our helpful guide: How to Use the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirements) Database.
Application Costs
It’s not only tuition you need to worry about. Even just applying to medical school costs a fair share of money.
To start, the standard MCAT registration fee is $330. This fee has risen over the years and will continue to rise. If the applicant qualifies for the MCAT Fee Assistance Program, the cost is reduced to $135. But of course, the registration fee is not the only expense associated with the MCAT.
Your child also needs to invest in practice tests and preparation materials. While you can find some free resources, most legitimate ones come with a cost. Official AAMC practice tests are $35 each. The AAMC also offers a range of planning and study resources that cost between $15-$45, as well as preparation bundles that can cost over $300 dollars for the Complete Bundle.
Depending on how well the practice tests go, your child may also want to consider MCAT tutoring. While this may not be necessary, your child’s MCAT score is a major factor in their future acceptance. Needing to retake the MCAT means eating all of those costs for a second time. Tutoring is the best way to ensure a strong score.
Learn more: How Much Does MCAT Cost? The REAL Costs Analyzed.
There’s also a chance your child may be required to complete a situational judgment test, either a Casper test, administered by Acuity Insights, or PREview, designed and administered by the AAMC. Casper costs $85 USD, which includes distribution of results to 7 programs. An additional $18 USD is charged for each additional program your child wants to send their results to.
The PREview exam charges a flat registration fee of $100, and this includes score release to an unlimited number of participating medical schools. The registration of the first exam is free if the applicant qualifies for AAMC Fee Assistance, and they will receive a 50% discount on any subsequent exams.
And we’re not done yet! It costs $175 to send an AMCAS primary application to the first medical school and $46 for each additional school. We recommend applying to no less than 20 schools. The cost of sending a primary application the minimum of 20 schools would be over $1000.
Secondary application fees generally range from $30 to $200, but the majority of schools charge about $100 for secondary applications. Since secondary application fees go directly to the school, it’s in a medical school’s best interest to send out as many secondary applications as possible. This means your child could receive 20 or more secondary requests, so they could pay as much or more than $2000 just to submit their secondary applications, on top of everything else.
Interviews also come with a notable cost. While the interviews themselves are free, your child could be applying to programs across the country. This means plane tickets, hotel rooms, transportation from the hotel room to the school, food, and more. Even if your child isn’t planning on traveling out of state, it’s still important to factor in transportation costs and accommodation near the school.
Your child also needs to invest in one or two quality suits for interviews. This is not optional, and quality suits are not cheap. What’s most critical is ensuring the clerks at the store take your child’s measurements and tailor the suit effectively. A tailored suit looks much better than an expensive one, so be sure to note your child’s body measurements for future reference, if you don’t know them already.
Here are 6 Tips to Reduce the Cost of Medical School Interviews.
Moving and Cost of Living
Aside from the exorbitant application and tuition fees, there’s also the cost of moving to the state where the school is located, the cost of living in that state, and, in some cases, the cost of transportation, as some states require owning a car in order to get around comfortably.
Cost of living varies considerably from one city or state to the next. For example, the cost of living in New York City or California, is astronomically higher than cities in Tennessee. If your family is used to spending $14 or $15 for lunch, expect to spend $19 or $20 in California. And this goes for groceries as well, to say nothing of rent and moving expenses.
All this to say, it’s important to sit down with your child and discuss as a family each of the financial burdens associated with applying to and attending medical school. Will your child need to work hard to secure financial aid? How passionate are they about becoming a doctor? Have they deeply considered nearby state schools and what they have to offer?
What Should High Schoolers Focus On?
Determine If Medicine Is a Good Fit
High school students still have so much to learn about the medical profession and day-to-day experience of being a doctor. Without this knowledge, students can’t make an informed decision about whether to dedicate their life to medicine.
Fortunately, high school students can begin their research from the comfort of their own home by watching our Day in the Life series, which follows attending doctors on the job, and our So You Want to Be series, which breaks down what it’s actually like to pursue various different medical specialties, such as surgery, psychiatry, or dermatology.
The next step is to get involved in a clinical setting by volunteering at a hospital and shadowing physicians. This provides students with a first-hand view of what it’s like to work in a clinical setting, as well as what to expect in a physician’s day-to-day life.
As a parent, be sure to speak to your child regularly about their shadowing experience and encourage them to be as reflective and candid as possible. It may not be as glamorous or exciting as they imagined, and it’s important to understand medicine isn’t for everyone.
The last thing your family wants to do is invest tens of thousands of dollars into something your child isn’t actually passionate about, so start this research as early as possible. Read our guide on 7 Signs You Shouldn’t Become a Doctor to determine if your child displays any of these warning signs.
Consider Premed Major Options
Another big step for high schoolers is deciding what premed major to pursue. In order to apply to medical school, students must complete several prerequisite courses, but the specific major they choose is up to them. A student can major in film studies and still be a premed as long as they fulfill their prerequisites.
While the most common and straightforward path is biological sciences, what’s most important is that your child chooses something they’re truly passionate about. That said, biology is a major component of medicine, so if your child doesn’t like the subject, they should strongly consider why they want to be a doctor.
However, your child has the rest of their education and career to study biology, so if they have another passion, such as art, history, or computer science, college is the time to pursue it, as they won’t have time to do so in medical school or residency. Plus, admissions committees see hundreds of biological science majors, so your child’s application will stand out if they have a unique major.
But if your child adores the biological sciences, all the better; it’s the most streamlined path to medical school as the material will overlap well with their prerequisites.
This decision comes fast, so take the time to research premed major options with your child so that they can enter college confident about their path.
We have detailed guides on choosing the best and easiest premed major.
Hone Active Study Strategies
The amount of content your child will need to commit to memory in medical school is nothing short of astounding. Think of trying to take a drink of water from a fire hydrant. While still a way off, focusing on active learning strategies now will set your child up for success later.
Studying must be active in order to be effective. Here are 7 Evidence-Based Study Strategies (And How to Use Each).
Far too many students wait until it’s too late to change their approach to studying since it’s easy enough to get by in high school and even college with passive study methods, such as rereading notes or textbooks.
Effective study strategies result in better grades, which will boost your child’s GPA and make them more attractive to both college and medical school admissions committees. Plus, utilizing these strategies early means it won’t take as long to acclimatize to the heavier workload in college and again in medical school.
What Should College Students Focus On?
Build Relationships
It’s imperative for college students to start building relationships and honing their interpersonal skills as soon as possible.
So many opportunities come down to who you know. While still key to acceptance, hard metrics are not the sole determinant of whether or not someone gets into medical school. Your child must not underappreciate the value of the connections they make, as having the right connections and a wide variety of strong relationships will be a massive help to them as they pursue medical education and a future career.
Your child will need four to five strong letters of recommendation to earn acceptance to medical school. And to earn those letters, they need to build relationships—which takes a great deal of time. Learning how to cultivate relationships early on is an extraordinarily valuable skill that will pay off every step of the way to becoming a doctor.
Fortunately, standing out as a student isn’t complicated; it just takes a lot of work. They need to show up every day, put in the effort, be proactive, and show enthusiasm. They need to demonstrate their value by being helpful to others, whether that’s taking on more responsibility, starting a club to bring people together, or actively participating in class.
A practical tip they can begin applying today is to remember people’s names. We are all deeply connected to our own name and feel seen when it’s used. Your child should practice going out of their way to use people’s names and remember small anecdotes about them. This shows their genuine interest in growing the relationship.
Prioritize Financial Literacy
Take a deep breath, parents: Most medical students graduate with over $250,000 in debt. While they will eventually make a 6-figure income, many doctors live paycheck to paycheck.
This is why students must prioritize their financial literacy. The earlier they understand the different kinds of loans available, what to invest in, how interest works, and how to spend wisely, the better off they will be financially later in life. Your child will only get busier the deeper they get into their education, which is why it’s vital to put the work in now.
If your child can minimize their expenses in college and build healthy financial habits early, this will compound and potentially make tens of thousands of dollars of difference in the future.
Remember the compounding effect. Your child likely doesn’t have much money to invest right now, but they do have expenses. If they are able to minimize their expenses and build healthy financial habits now, this will compound and make tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of difference in the future.
Check out our guide: Why Are So Many Doctors Broke? Is It Worth the Debt?
Give Your Child the Best Chance of Acceptance
Med School Insiders will help your child create a stand out medical school application, and we’ll help your family make all of the right decisions to help your child reach their full potential. Our team of doctors has years of experience serving on admissions committees, so your child will receive key insights from people who have been intimately involved with the selection process.
Our Comprehensive Medical School Admissions Packages are designed to maximize your child’s potential. We offer one-on-one advising, essay editing, application editing, mock interviews, and more based on key tactics that only the top performing physicians know about. We’re dedicated to creating a generation of happier, healthier, and more effective future doctors, and we’ll help your child become the doctor they’ve always dreamed of.
