Tulane Medical School Admissions Process

Sections: Application | Screening | Interview | Committee Action | Acceptance

APPLICATION

As a convenience to the applicant, Tulane University School of Medicine participates in the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). Initial AMCAS, or primary, applications are available on line. The application can be accessed by going to the following website address:

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2003.htm

All who have their primary application forwarded by AMCAS to Tulane should complete the Tulane Secondary application, which is available at this website. The secondary application, after completion, should be printed-out and sent directly to the Office of Admissions at Tulane. An application fee of $95, which covers the handling and processing of the application, must accompany the completed secondary application. Deadline for return of the secondary application is January 15.

An applicant's file is not considered complete until the secondary application, with the appropriate fee, and either an undergraduate pre-professional committee letter or three letters of evaluation, at least two of which come from professors of science courses, have been received. (Applicants are discouraged from seeking additional letters of recommendation.) It is imperative that all required documentation be received by the Office of Admissions no later than January 15. It is in the applicant's best interest to complete the application as early as possible during the admission cycle, which begins in June.

It is important that all potential applicants understand that, in recent years, Tulane has received nearly 7,000 applications; approximately 65% of these are completed and, therefore, considered for admission.

SCREENING

Once an application is complete, i.e., primary and secondary applications, application fee, a copy of your AMCAS application & a copy of your MCAT scores, and all letters of evaluation have been received by this office, the file is "screened," or read, by one or more members of the Admission Committee. One of two actions can result from screening. The applicant may be:

- INVITED FOR INTERVIEW, or
- SENT A LETTER OF NON-ACCEPTANCE

During the screening process the contents of the entire application are taken into account, but at this stage of review the greatest emphasis is placed upon the academic record and letters of evaluation. Nonetheless, experience shows that students with a broad range of coursework (both science and non-science courses), active participation in college or campus life, and a good record of community service are more likely to be invited for interviews.

INTERVIEW

Approximately 900 applicants are invited to the medical school campus each year, starting in September and continuing into March, for interviews. Invited applicants are given a suggested date for the interviews and are asked to confirm with Tulane's Office of Admission. Every effort will be made to accommodate applicants wishing to change their interview date; recognizing the cost of interviewing, Tulane will attempt to accommodate those applicants attempting to coordinate interviews with several schools.

Interview days are Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays and last from 8:30 am until approximately 2:30 pm. If available, overnight housing with a medical student can be arranged.

Each applicant will be interviewed by two faculty members or administrators and one student, with the student interview occurring in the form of a "working lunch." All interviews with an administrator are "blind"; all interviews are non-confrontational. Each interviewer will write a report about the interview and that report will become a part of the applicant's file. With the addition of the interview reports, an applicant's file is considered complete and ready for Committee review.

COMMITTEE ACTION

The file, usually within one week of the interview date, goes before the full Admission Committee for evaluation. The Committee may decide to accept or reject the applicant or put the applicant on the "acceptance range" list, a non-ranked wait-list. No mathematical formulae are used in making this decision and no specific guidelines are given to committee members in regard to a particular weight to be placed upon MCAT's, GPA, or other parts of the completed application. The final decision is a subjective one, based upon the opinions of no fewer than five members of the Committee.

Acceptances are offered weekly, beginning October 1 and continuing until the class is filled. Each week, the Committee may elect to remove someone from the "acceptance range" list and send an offer of acceptance, or they may send such offers only to applicants whose files have come before them for the first time.

ACCEPTANCE

Those applicants who receive letters of acceptance are given two weeks to either accept or decline, in writing, their places in the Tulane medical student body. Those who accept their place must send a deposit check of $500, made out to the Tulane Educational Fund, no later than May 15 of the year of their expected matriculation. This deposit, which is credited against the student's tuition, is not refundable and, therefore, applicants are advised to send their deposit only after they have made a final decision about attending medical school.

A letter of withdrawal is required if a student wishes to relinquish a reserved place in the class.

Accepted students are asked to be considerate to others in the applicant pool awaiting an acceptance. Tulane strongly encourages students to not hold more than one seat at a time, but recognizes that a final decision often can not be made until all information, including financial aid information, has been provided. In cases where a multi-successful applicant is awaiting additional information before deciding upon which school to attend, we encourage the applicant to narrow the choice to two or three schools at most and to relinquish any additional places being held. The applicant should make decisions as information is received from the medical schools.