Medical School Application Timeline 2020-2021: AMCAS, AACOMAS, TMDAS Dates and Deadlines

Medical school application dates: the earlier the better (usually). When I was applying to medical school, I felt overwhelmed and confused with the massive amount of information out there on the medical school application timeline. The truth is, the medical school application timeline can be confusing at first. There are a lot of components, from the AMCAS application to your medical school interview timeline, that you need to keep track of and organize.

Planning Your Application Process

The medical school application process ideally starts about 2 years before your planned medical school start date. For example, if you are planning on starting medical school Fall 2021 (i.e. August 2021), then you need to start preparing your medical school application process in Spring 2020 (i.e. January 2020). The good news is mapping out your medical school application timeline doesn’t have to be complicated. Don't forget, you'll need to take CASPer as well! The timeline can also vary slightly depending on whether you are planning your gap year before medical school or if you are applying straight to medical school after your senior year of college.

Major Application Systems in the United States

There are three main medical school applications you should be aware of:

• The AMCAS application which is for allopathic or MD schools
• The AACOMAS application which is for osteopathic or DO schools
• The TMDSAS application which for medical schools in Texas

AMCAS Deadlines 2020

With organization and these pieces of key information, you can successfully plan out your submission using the following schedule:

Key Dates and Milestone Details

May 4 - AMCAS Application Opens. This date is important because it's the first date your actually alowed to fill out the application. While it sounds easy, just inputting all the required information outside of the essays probably takes between 4-6 hours. The coursework section is probably the most grueling. You can make it easier for yourself by ordering an official transcript from all schools where you took courses from. Trust us, you don't want to be scrambling around trying to find them last minute.

May 22 - Last MCAT Date Without Delaying Your Application. While this is less relevant given the COVID-19 pandemic, this date would be the last date you could take your MCAT and get your scores back without causing any delay in our application. Even though applications are open for submission on May 28, AMCAS does not transmit applications to individual schools until June 26. With a May 22 test date, you get your scores back June 24.

May 28 - First Day to Submit AMCAS. It will feel so good to push the submit button. This is the first date to submit your application. Even though you can submit it any time after, medical school admissions are not like other graduate schools. You should aim to submit within the first few days (or first week) if at all possible. Submitting early means your application will get verified earlier.

Verification and Secondary Applications

Verification is the process where a real human goes through every line of your transcript and confirms it with what you manually inputted. This process gets backed up - the longer you wait, the longer this human takes to say you didn't lie about your grades and verify your application. At times, this can take 4-6 weeks to complete, so even if you submit your application on June 30, it could potentially take until early August or mid-August for your application to actually make it to medical schools.

JULY 10 (from June 26)* - First Day AMCAS Releases Applications to Medical Schools. At least: AMCAS is done hoarding all of your applications. If you are verified before this time, you'll likely begin receiving a bunch of secondaries starting this week since most schools do not screen before sending secondaries to students. You could end up with ~30-50 seconary essays alone by July.