Medical school application timeline: what to do and when

When should you start preparing to apply to medical school?

Start about a year before the application opens: the fall and winter before you apply are for picking an MCAT date, asking for letters, and drafting your essays and activities, because the application services open in early May. If you plan to start medical school in fall 2028, you will apply in late spring 2027 and test in the 2027 MCAT testing year.

If cost is a concern, apply to the AAMC Fee Assistance Program first. Benefits are not retroactive, and the AMCAS fee waiver cannot be used on an application submitted before approval, so wait for a decision before you register for the MCAT or submit AMCAS. Benefits include reduced MCAT registration fees and an AMCAS fee waiver for up to 20 schools.

If you want a mentor to keep this calendar with you, ProMed United's Med School Accelerator covers MCAT planning and the application in one guided path.

• Choose an MCAT date early enough to leave room for a retake later in the same testing year if you need one.
• Ask letter writers early, and check each school's letter requirements in the AAMC's Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) database.
• Keep a running log of activities with dates, hours, and a contact person; AMCAS allows up to 15 Work and Activities entries, with up to 3 marked most meaningful.
• Draft your personal statement over the winter so May is for data entry and polishing, not first drafts.
• Gather a transcript from every college you attended; AMCAS asks you to enter your coursework from official transcripts.

When should you take the MCAT if you are applying to medical school?

Take the MCAT early enough that your score is released by about the time you submit, which typically means testing between January and spring of the year you apply. The AAMC notes that many students take the MCAT in the same year they apply, which is the calendar year before they start medical school, and advises testing when you feel most prepared.

The 2027 MCAT testing year runs from January 15 to September 11, 2027, with 35 U.S. test dates, and the AAMC set registration to open in stages from October 20 to 22, 2026. Scores typically are reported 30 to 35 days after the exam and are released by 5 p.m. ET on the scheduled date, so a late-summer test means a score in early fall, well after AMCAS starts sending applications to schools in late June.

Medical schools see all of your MCAT scores, and schools generally accept scores from tests taken 2 to 3 years earlier. Check each school's policy in MSAR before you rely on an older score. If you might retest, the AAMC suggests testing earlier in the testing year; you can take the exam up to three times in one testing year, four times over two consecutive years, and seven times in your lifetime, and a voided exam or no-show counts as an attempt.

You can submit AMCAS before your score is released, because the application asks you to list future test dates. Schools receive the score once it is released, so a late test can still hold up the review of an application that was submitted on time.

When do AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS open, and when should you submit?

All three application services open in early May, and submitting in late May or June gives your application the most time in front of schools. For students entering in fall 2027, TMDSAS opened May 1, 2026, AACOMAS opened May 4, and AMCAS opened May 5. Exact days shift slightly from year to year, so confirm them on each service's site.

AMCAS is used by most U.S. MD-granting schools; the main exceptions are the Texas MD schools that apply through TMDSAS, including the Texas public medical schools and Baylor College of Medicine. AACOMAS is the centralized application for U.S. colleges of osteopathic medicine. TMDSAS is the application for 14 Texas medical schools, including two osteopathic (DO) schools.

• AMCAS (MD): you could start the 2027 application on May 5 and submit from May 28, and AMCAS began sending verified applications to schools on June 26. Each school sets its own deadline between September and December, due by 11:59 p.m. ET, and transcripts must arrive within 14 calendar days of that deadline.
• AACOMAS (DO): the 2026-2027 cycle opened May 4, 2026 and closes April 30, 2027, but each college sets its own deadline, which can be months earlier and is listed in AACOM's Choose DO Explorer. The AACOMAS help center recommends submitting 6 to 8 weeks before a program's deadline.
• TMDSAS (Texas): the application opened May 1, 2026 and accepted submissions from May 15. The medical school deadline was October 1 at 11:59 p.m. CST, and TMDSAS does not grant deadline extensions.
• Early decision: the AMCAS Early Decision Program deadline was August 3, 2026, and the TMDSAS early decision programs closed August 1.

How long does verification take, and why does applying early matter?

Plan on several weeks: the AAMC tells advisors to expect about six weeks from the date an AMCAS application reaches Ready for Review status, and the queue is longest in early summer. AMCAS checks your coursework against official transcripts and calculates AMCAS GPAs before it sends anything to schools, and an application cannot join the verification queue until all required official transcripts have arrived.

In AAMC data from the last five cycles, average AMCAS verification time peaked at roughly 20 to 26 business days in June or July, depending on the cycle, and fell to about 10 business days or fewer by September. TMDSAS says applications are usually processed within 4 weeks, and up to 6 weeks during peak periods.

A shorter wait in the fall does not make a fall submission better. A June application waits in the busiest queue but still reaches schools months before an October application, and many schools review files and send interview invitations on a rolling basis, so earlier applicants are considered while more interview spots are open.

Watch the processing dates AMCAS posts on its sign-in page, and fix transcript problems quickly, since one missing transcript holds the whole application.

When should you ask for letters of recommendation for medical school?

Ask for letters in the winter or early spring before you apply, so writers can submit them soon after your application opens in May. Give each writer your resume, a draft of your personal statement, and the date you plan to submit, which makes an on-time letter much more likely.

AMCAS accepts up to 10 letter entries, and a committee letter, a letter packet, or an individual letter each counts as one entry. Writers upload through the AAMC Letter Writer Portal or Interfolio, and AMCAS delivers letters electronically to schools after your application is verified. AMCAS keeps letters only within a single application year, so reapplicants need letters submitted again.

You can submit AMCAS and AACOMAS before your letters arrive, but some schools will not review your file until their required letters are in. TMDSAS asks that letters be uploaded or postmarked by October 15.

When do secondary applications and medical school interviews happen?

Secondary applications can start arriving soon after you submit your primary application, sometimes before AMCAS finishes processing it, so an early applicant should be ready for them from early summer on. Many medical schools send secondaries automatically to all applicants, and an admissions advisor quoted by the AAMC recommends waiting until a school formally invites you before you submit one.

Each school writes its own secondary questions and sets its own deadline. Prewrite answers to common prompts, such as why you chose that school or a challenge you worked through, then tailor them; advisors quoted by the AAMC recommend emphasizing different details or examples for each school. Returning secondaries promptly keeps your file moving at schools that review on a rolling basis.

The AAMC says interviews are most commonly offered from August to February, and invitations can keep arriving through winter or even into spring, with each school setting its own timeline. Respond promptly to interview invitations and tell the school immediately if you must cancel, which the AAMC lists among applicant responsibilities. Whether an interview is virtual or in person varies by school, so read each invitation closely.

Schools often email applicants in large batches that spam filters can catch, so an advisor quoted in the AAMC's Advisor Corner recommends staying on top of all your mail and email and checking your spam folder regularly. The AAMC protocols also ask you to update your contact details with every application service whenever they change.

When do medical schools send acceptances, and what are the traffic rules?

MD schools may send regular acceptances on or after October 15, and the AAMC's Application and Acceptance Protocols, often called the traffic rules, set the key dates after that. Early Decision applicants hear by October 1, and by March 15 each school is expected to have offered a number of acceptances equal to its expected first-year class size. Initial deposits should not exceed $100 and should be refundable until at least April 30, except for Early Decision applicants; after April 30, schools give at least five business days to respond to an offer, or as few as two within 30 days of orientation.

DO schools follow AACOM's AACOMAS Traffic Guidelines. Colleges may make offers any time after the interview, and your deposit deadline depends on when you are accepted: offers before November 15 have until December 14, offers from November 15 to January 14 get 30 days, offers from January 15 to April 30 get 14 days, and offers on or after May 1 may require an immediate deposit. Before May 1, hold a seat at only one DO school, because a college may rescind an offer to someone holding seats at several.

Texas has its own match. TMDSAS schools may make pre-match offers to Texas residents between October 15 and January 31, applicants rank every school that interviewed them, except any whose pre-match offer they declined, by the deadline (January 29, 2027, at 5 p.m. CST this cycle), and match results come out February 12. Missing the ranking deadline withdraws you from all TMDSAS medical schools, and Texas residents holding multiple offers must choose one by April 30 (April 15 for schools whose first day of class is before August 1).

• February 19, 2027: in the AMCAS Choose Your Medical School tool, applicants with an acceptance can mark one school as Plan to Enroll while keeping other offers, alternate-list spots, and interviews.
• April 15: narrow MD acceptances to no more than three and withdraw from the rest.
• April 30: choose one MD school and withdraw from all others. Commit to Enroll opens that day, but selecting it does not automatically withdraw your other applications, so you must still withdraw from each other school yourself.
• May 1: by this date, DO applicants should hold a seat at only one college of osteopathic medicine.