According to several adcomm posters at SDN, starting with the next application cycle AMCAS is make two major changes to the medical school admission process:
all admission reports to med schools will be eliminated
Currently on or about Feb1 of each year, med school admission offices begin to receive weekly reports that list which students they’ve accepted also hold acceptances at other med schools. On or about April 1, all med schools receive a list of current applicants that hold one or more medical school acceptances.
Staring next cycle, both will disappear.
(Since med schools often use merit awards to persuade desirable students with multiple acceptances to enroll, this may affect how merit is awarded. It also may affect how students are drawn from the waitlists since as the cycle draws to a close, med schools often choose students with no acceptances to help guarantee a completely filled class.)
the prohibition on matriculating into another med school after one has already started classes at one med school will be eliminated
Currently, once a student begins orientation/classes at a med school, all other admissions/waitlists are revoked/voided.
Starting next cycle schools will be allowed to “poach” waitlisted students who have already begun classes at another med schools.
The AMCAS held its annual meeting this past week and the #1 topic of discussion was the implementation of these new rules changes.
Things you’re probably going to see for the next application cycle:
HUGE expansion of binding early decision programs (EDP). It’s being suggested that as much as 25-50% of a med school’s class may come thru EDP.
contractually binding LOI (letters of intent). Some schools are talking about requiring applicants to sign a binding matriculation contract upon acceptance or within a limited specified time (few days/few weeks) of receiving an acceptance. Applicants who sign the binding contract will be exempt from the next item…
a requirement to pay a large non-refundable deposit on or immediately after the April 30 decision date to hold your place. Potentially as much as the full tuition for the first term of med school. Georgetown already requires a $500+ deposit payable on April 30. Expect most/all schools to follow suit.
one other possibility–a return by some schools to an individual school-specific application process so none of the AMCAS traffic rules apply. (Which means LOTS more paperwork for applicants.)
We lost $2500 non-refundable deposit to a DO school. They require the deposit 7 days after admission is offered. There is no way we could get other offers because the interview schedule.
D ended up not going to that school and we lost that deposit. Ironically, she is attending a different campus of the SAME school we lost the deposit and that campus still require another deposit of $2500. Had she not attend that school we would lost total of $5000.
The ones in the first post are fine. These other proposed changes seem like they would significantly disadvantage students with lower incomes via either limiting aid shopping or prevent them from using the waitlist. This would seem to run counter to the goals of many medical schools which is to limit financial barriers to med school as much as possible.
Agree with Brown. This would have significantly impacted son’s ability to deposit any funds or accept the scholarship offers he received from the various med school’s including those that offer the unit loan as part of the financial aid package.
So, it appears LOIs will be binding and the failure to supply one may result in having an admission rescinded. And that a school may require a large post-April 30th deposit may be required by a school as proof of’ intent to enroll’.
Med schools are now allowed to ask waitlisted students what their matriculation status is before they extend an acceptance off the waitlist.
Although the Multiple Acceptance Reports will no longer be automatically sent to all med schools next, it’s still unclear whether med school admission offices will no longer have access to a specific student’s acceptance & matriculation status since that information is permanently linked to the student’s AMCAS ID. Theoretically, adcomms could simply send an inquiry to AMCAS for a status check of a specific AMCAS ID before making any waitlist offers.
An option that you may be seeing in the upcoming cycle–matriculation alternates. These are 1-2 extra (surplus) students who are allowed attend orientation and the first few days of classes in case anyone drops out/withdraws to attend another school. (In case there are no withdrawals, the alternates would be guaranteed a place in next year’s class.)