Admissions Requirements

Notice Regarding COVID-19: Coursework from Winter/Spring 2020 through Summer 2021 for CHM Applicants

The College of Human Medicine recognizes that the COVID-19 crisis is life-disrupting for everyone. Colleges and universities are navigating this crisis in varying ways. One way is to institute a Pass/Fail grading system. As the pandemic continues, we must consider how students and applicants will be affected moving forward into the latter half of the cycle's academic calendar.

Grades through Summer 2021
Many colleges and universities have decided to continue instituting a Pass/Fail system for coursework through summer 2021. For those of you in which a Pass/Fail or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade is rendered for any courses from winter/spring 2020 through summer 2021, CHM will accept that course grade without bias. This includes coursework that is traditionally considered prerequisite or recommended for many medical school admissions processes.

The challenge for medical school admissions committees is that accurate and specific information is always preferred. When committees are faced with ambiguity, their bias may factor a “Pass” grade on par with a “C/D” or “2.0/1.0” rather than a higher grade. So, if you have an option to proceed with a letter grade for prerequisite coursework, many schools would prefer this option.

We would be remiss if we didn’t recognize that there may be several advantages and disadvantages when considering your grading options. We also recognize that every applicant has his/her/their own set of strengths and areas for growth. Maintaining a healthy mentoring/coaching relationship with your prehealth adviser will be key as you proceed with decisions about your coursework. If you do not have access to a prehealth adviser, please contact the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions.

2021/2022 MCAT
Please review the official AAMC MCAT webpage, which includes up-to-date information on if and how the MCAT registration/testing process is currently being affected. We understand and empathize with those who’s scheduling of the MCAT exam have been disrupted. Rest assured that CHM Admissions remains in close contact with the AAMC MCAT team and are impressed with their responsiveness and commitment to making sure that everyone who wants to take an MCAT exam will be able to do so. Please monitor MCAT and coronavirus updates and additional test-taking times/dates.

If MCAT testing dates are interrupted, CHM Admissions will accept scores from any extended exam date that was subsequently added.

Activities
The College of Human Medicine has a long history of approaching admissions decisions holistically and in a way that balances our focus well beyond academic metrics. We understand that the pandemic may have also interrupted various activities that would have helped you provide additional support to your application. CHM Admissions would encourage you to convey these disruptions in your application for our committee to consider—activities section, personal statement, secondary application—wherever best for you.

We would also encourage you to be prepared to update the committee about any disrupted activities throughout the 2020-21 AMCAS cycle as long as your application is still being considered for an interview. Please submit any activity updates in a PDF document following AMCAS activities section format guidelines along with your name and AMCAS ID by email to: chm.mdadmissions@msu.edu.

Onsite tours and programming
Due to public health concerns, CHM has suspended onsite programing and campus tours. Please feel free to review our virtual tours, highlighting both our East Lansing and Grand Rapids campuses. Should a window of time open in which your personal and public health and safety can be maximally assured, we will re-implement these opportunities for our active applicant pool

Interviews
CHM Admissions will be implementing online programming and interviews for the entire 2021-22 application cycle. CHM Admissions is confident that our programming and interviews will remain helpful and informational to and for everyone. More details about interviewing at the College of Human Medicine is forthcoming.

Final Comments
Medical school admissions processes strive hard to create assessment strategies that are fair and equitable for everyone. The novel coronavirus ignores fairness and equity. For some of you, this might affect your ability to put forth the best application possible. Medical school admissions offices (including ours) are working hard to create flexibility and understanding as they develop admissions policies and processes for this coming application cycle. For most medical schools, the applicant pool will remain highly competitive even with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please maintain healthy relationships with your prehealth advisers. Keep an open mind. Be receptive to feedback. Apply to medical school if you believe your application is competitive. If not, please wait to apply when you’re standing on more solid ground. The application process is expensive. And understand that there is nothing fair about our current public health crisis. A robust and healthy dialogue with your prehealth adviser will help you determine if you are ready to apply.

With PLUR,

Joel Maurer, MD
Assistant Dean for Admissions

 

General Factors

Applicants and Subsequent Matriculants to the MSU College of Human Medicine must:

• Be a U.S. or Canadian citizen or permanent resident of the United States
  
• Have a valid U.S. or Canadian Driver's License and reliable vehicle upon matriculation
• Have completed at least a four-year high school education or equivalent
• Have completed all premedical requirements, including a bachelor's degree earned in the U.S. or Canada
  
• Have taken the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
• Have taken the CASPer Test

Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)

The college requires all applicants to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Submit your existing MCAT scores with your AMCAS application. If you are retaking the MCAT to improve your scores, we will accept scores no older than four calendar years. Both old—scores earned prior to the Spring 2015 launch of the new MCAT—and new MCAT scores are acceptable.

For MCAT Test deadlines, please see our Dates & Deadlines Page.

The only applicants for whom scores from MCATs taken after the given deadline may be considered are those who are placed on the Alternate list after interview, and then only at the discretion of the Committee on Admissions.

Changes to MCAT information in AMCAS

• If there is any change to your MCAT intent (changing your "Addl MCAT Intent Date" to a future date or removing it), you must recertify and resubmit your AMCAS application in order for this change to become an official update. Simply saving the change and exiting the application is not enough.
  
• If you are taking the MCAT after you submit your AMCAS application, your application will be held for an interview decision until your MCAT scores are received. To avoid any delay in reviewing your application once your scores are received, we suggest that you go ahead and pay your Secondary Application Fee and submit your Secondary Application.
• If you indicated on your AMCAS application that you were going to take an MCAT exam on a particular date but do not take it, notify our office by email so that we can go ahead and review your application.
• If you indicated that you were not going to retake the MCAT exam on your AMCAS application but changed your mind and will take the exam again, in or before September, you must notify our office by email so that we will hold your application for review for an interview decision until we receive those scores.
  

CASPer Test

The college also requires applicants to take the CASPer test. Check the CASPer site for available dates, typically running from May-Jan for CHM.

Please note that MD/PhD applicants, however, must take the CASPer test no later than 9/23/2021 for the 2022 application cycle. MD/PhD applicants who do not take CASPer by this date will not be considered.

Premedical Course Requirements

Premedical requirements are minimums that must be fulfilled prior to matriculation at the College of Human Medicine. Your AMCAS academic record will be reviewed for completion of our premedical requirements. If you are invited to interview, your Premedical Requirements form will also be reviewed. If any deficiencies or discrepancies are found, Admissions staff will either discuss this with you on Interview Day or contact you by email shortly thereafter.

Undergraduate coursework must be completed at an accredited US or Canadian four-year college or university. There is no requirement as to how recently your undergraduate courses or premedical requirements were completed; however, more recent coursework or advanced study in the basic sciences is preferred. There is no preference of where you complete your premedical courses, as long as they're completed at an accredited US or Canadian undergraduate institution.

We will accept courses from community colleges if they are accepted at an accredited four-year US or Canadian undergraduate institution as transfer credit. To verify if a specific course is accepted at MSU, visit the MSU Transfer Admissions site and view the Transfer MSU Credit Equivalency System.

If you are accepted to the College of Human Medicine, you will be required to submit official transcripts from all post-secondary schools you have attended (AMCAS does not forward transcripts). In addition to updating your MSU student record, your transcripts are reviewed for the completion of any degree(s) listed on your AMCAS application, as well as any incomplete premedical course requirement(s) that you indicated on your AMCAS application. If there are changes in premedical courses you indicated you would complete and/or degrees you indicated you would earn, please notify the Office of Admissions right away.

Prerequisite Models

Flexibility in curriculum is a key concept in trying to meet the many types of qualified applicants that exist in today’s changing world. This coincides with schools, including our own, taking a more holistic approach to reviewing applicants once they apply to medical school. In order to meet the needs of many types of applicants (both traditional and nontraditional) and undergraduate institutions, CHM has embraced a flexible approach in providing various options (or pathways) to meeting premedical course requirements.

It is best that you review these options early in your academic career with your academic and/or preprofessional advisor so that you can best determine which academic prerequisite option is best for you in the context of your planned course of undergraduate study. Click the button below for further information and the list of models.

 

 

 

 

Additional Pertinent Information

AP/CLEP Credit

We accept AP and CLEP credit to meet premedical course requirements, if documented on an official transcript. Please note that lab credit will still be required. Applicants may meet lab credit with the lab sections of advanced science courses or practical experience, such as documented relevant experience in a research lab.

Canadian Coursework

We will accept courses from member universities in Canada that belong to the Universities Canada organization. 

A one-year Canadian course will fulfill our one-year course series requirement.  However, for the MCAT-Influenced Preparation Model, a lab component must be included with at least one of each of the applicant’s biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics courses.

If you have any questions or concerns or need additional information about premedical course requirements, please email the Office of Admissions.