Applicant Requirements

Applicants are expected to earn a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university that is located in and accredited in the U.S. or Canada.  Applicants who have not graduated from an accredited U.S. or Canadian institution, but who completed a minimum of two (2) years in such an institution, including all of the prerequisites, may be considered to be eligible and should bring the details of their record to the attention of the Committee on Admissions.  Applicants currently enrolled in a professional or graduate school program must be in the terminal year of the degree program to be considered for admission to the first year class and all applicants are expected to complete any academic program in which they are enrolled at any time during the application process. Individuals who have previously matriculated at another medical school are not eligible to apply to BUSM.  Due to the retention of the current student body, Boston University School of Medicine does not have any slots available for advanced standing in the second or third classes.

Prerequisite Course Requirements

– English Composition or Literature (or other writing intensive course(s) )  (1 year)
– Humanities (1 year)
– Biological Sciences with Lab (intro or advanced) (1 year)
– Physics (intro or advanced) (1 year)
– Chemistry Sequences: Applicants may meet our chemistry requirement in any of the following ways, as long as the sequence chosen meets the chemistry requirements of the undergraduate institution:

All prerequisites must be completed before a student can matriculate at BUSM. We generally prefer that applicants take these courses at 4-year undergraduate institution rather than utilize advanced placement credits. If an applicant chooses to use advanced placement credits, rather than taking a course at a 4 year accredited college, he/she will be asked to explain the circumstances as a part of their BUSM secondary application.  The Committee on Admissions will then consider the matter as a part of its comprehensive review of the application.  This applies also to CLEP, community college, and junior college courses as well.  If an applicant has placed out of a required college level course, we will also accept another course in that discipline at the same or higher level.

Applicants are urged to acquire a broad experience in the humanities, as well as in the behavioral and social sciences during their college years.  In particular, we believe that course work in Mathematics (particularly statistics), Biochemistry, Social and Behavioral Sciences (Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology), Genetics, and Molecular Biology is important.  We encourage all applicants to follow their own interests whether in the arts or in the sciences, and applicants are generally well advised to refrain from modifying their undergraduate course selections in an effort to anticipate subject matter that will be studied in medical school.

Letter of Recommendation Requirements

Those applicants who attend, or who have recently graduated from, an undergraduate institution or a post-baccalaureate premedical program which offers a Health Professions Advisory Committee letter should submit a letter from this committee.  If no such institutional letter is available, the applicant should explain this on the BUSM supplemental application and substitute a minimum of three individual letters, two of which must be from a professor who has taught you in Biology, Chemistry or Physics (or other similar classes).  The third letter can be from a person of your choice and need not be academic in nature. Applicants to the MD PhD program, should submit a fourth letter from a research advisor.  The secondary application will not be considered complete until we have received all required letters, on official institutional letterhead and with a hand-written signature.

If you are enrolled in, or have completed, a formal, degree-granting program of graduate study, please provide a letter from your thesis adviser or a graduate professor for non-thesis programs in addition to the undergraduate letter requirement or at a minimum one science letter, once graduate letter, and one of your choice.  Applicants in a non-thesis graduate program can submit a letter from a graduate professor. If you are engaged in research, either as a part of a degree program or in any other substantive way, a letter from your research supervisor would be appreciated.

Boston University School of Medicine accepts letters electronically through the AMCAS Letter Service only.  AMCAS will accept letters from users of VirtualEvals, Interfolio and via the US Postal Service.  The address to which letters should be sent is located on the AMCAS Letters Request Form.  For more information on this process, please visit AMCAS Letters FAQ.

MCAT Test Requirements

All applicants must take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and should communicate directly with the Association of American Medical Colleges for information concerning these examinations. Applicants are encouraged to take the MCAT in the spring of the year of application and to have most of the basic science requirements completed at the time of application. While we do our best to give equal consideration to all applications that are completed prior to our published deadlines, we have a very large applicant pool and early applications may be more likely to receive a favorable review.

Questions? Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page. If you still have questions, please feel free to Contact Us.