An Insider’s Guide to Submitting the AMCAS

If you are applying in the upcoming medical admissions cycle, add AMCAS (or “American Medical Colleges Application Service”) to your vocabulary now. Also known by its informal name, the “primary application” or even simply the “primary,” the AMCAS application is a centralized, online application that serves as the first application round for most medical schools in the United States. It’s important to note that the AMCAS is only necessary if you are applying to MD programs. Medical schools in Texas as well as the CUNY School of Medicine Sophie Davis Biomedical Education Program do not participate in AMCAS and require alternate mechanisms for primary applications. If you are choosing to pursue the osteopathic route, then you will need to submit the AACOMAS instead.

The Three Steps of the AMCAS Process

How does the AMCAS generally work? There are three steps in the primary application process, as outlined in the following table:

Step 1: Submission and Transcripts

The first step is to complete and submit your AMCAS application, paying the requisite fees. You must request that all university-level transcripts be sent to AMCAS. Depending on the platform that your university uses, you may also have to pay for an official transcript to be sent to AMCAS. Additionally, it is of utmost importance that you request ALL university transcripts, including transcripts from study abroad courses, courses taken in high school through or at a university/college, or other transfer credit. While this step can be tedious, if a medical school finds out that you failed to send a transcript, it might rescind your acceptance.

Step 2: Review and GPA Calculation

After you complete these steps, the application service will review your grades and coursework for accuracy. Your application will only be reviewed once AMCAS has received both your application and all of your transcripts. Therefore, ensuring that your transcripts have been sent to AMCAS before submission can help prevent delays in the review process. Due to the varying volume of applications, this process can take a few days if you submit early, or up to weeks during peak submission times (i.e. in the mid-summer.)

During this phase, AMCAS reviewers make necessary changes to the coursework section of your application based on cross-checks with transcripts, and calculate a standardized AMCAS GPA. This means that all AMCAS GPAs, which are eventually sent to medical schools, are based on a 4.0 scale — regardless of your home institution’s grading scale. Additionally, AMCAS reviewers calculate a BCPM GPA, which is comprised of all grades received in fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. This official BCPM is what will be sent to medical schools of your choice. Note that courses in other approved science fields can count as part of your BCPM GPA.

Step 3: Verification and Distribution

When review of your application is complete, AMCAS sends your verified application to the medical schools you designated. If you have not yet uploaded letters of evaluation to your application, they will be sent as AMCAS receives them. Additionally, if your MCAT scores were not already included in your application due to a later testing date or other reasons, they will be delivered to medical schools when they are available.

Application Timeline

The AMCAS portal opens for viewing and entry on Wednesday, May 2. After this date, it is advantageous to work through the sections and fill them out as soon as possible. The first day you can submit your AMCAS application for review is May 31. In order to be part of the first group of applicants that medical schools consider in the cycle, it is best to submit your AMCAS as early as possible.